Lea
Feminine · “From Hebrew Leah”
Lea is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 33,848 girls against 620 boys since 1880. See Lea as a boy name
Lea has two roads to it: the French Léa, from the Hebrew Leah, and the old English poetic word for a meadow. The meadow word lives in one of the most famous opening lines in English poetry, and a London river of the same name runs through the first pages of the most famous book about fishing.
How old is the name Lea?
Lea was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lea alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 30,000 people named Lea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lea most popular?
Lea peaked in 1970, reaching #396 nationally. Today it ranks #848, 452 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Where it comes from
From Leah to Lea
The story of Lea
Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, first published in 1653, opens with three men walking north out of London up the River Lea on a May morning, talking about fishing, and the river is still a haunt of anglers. A century later Thomas Gray began his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard with 'The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, / The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea', and the word has meant a quiet meadow to English readers ever since. As a given name Lea has been in American use since records began, often as the French form of Leah.
Meaningscholars disagree
From Hebrew Leah, or English lea, 'meadow'
As a form of Leah the meaning is disputed; as an English word, lea is a meadow or open grassland. The spelling serves both.
How the name formed
- Leah
- Léa
- Lea
Related forms: Léa · Leah · Lea · Lea
Pronouncing Lea
LEE-uh
Most Americans say LEE-uh; some families say LEE, like the English word.
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1969527 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #396reached in 1970
- Change vs 2022
- −11.3%321 in 2025, from 362
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Lea in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Léa in French — same name
- Leah in Hebrew — related form
- Lea in German — same name
- Lea in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Leas among us
people named Lea are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,007 born in 2025 was named Lea
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lea
- #848
- Lea on the 2025 chart
- #59
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lea went to 321 girls in 2025, but Leah is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 4,213, which makes it the 59th most-given girls’ name of the year — 789 places above the chart.
- Leah3,880
- Lea321
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 382 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,007 for Lea itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roslyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lea's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roslyn climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roslyn's path sketches the road Lea is walking now.
Lea sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Lea is headed
Lea should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Lea beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lea in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short and simple.
- Used across French, German, Italian and English.
- A long American history.
- Two pronunciations are common, LEE and LEE-uh.
- People will write Leah.
- The spelling is recorded for a handful of boys, but it is a girl's name in every tradition behind it.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lea
Feminine · #848 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 30,000 people named Lea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lea?
- Lea is one of 2 recorded spellings. Leah is the more common one — 3,880 births in 2025 against 321 for Lea.
- How popular is the name Lea in 2025?
- Lea ranks #848 among US girl names in 2025, with 321 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lea?
- About 1 in every 5,007 US girls born in 2025 was named Lea — 321 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lea with classmates?
- Lea will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lea
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kendra#849 · Magdalena#849 · Kelly#851 · Chelsea#851 · Elani#844 · Ensley#844 · Tara#844 · Honey#844
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lea? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lea and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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