Leann
Feminine · “clearing”
Leann is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 24,356 girls against 7 boys since 1880.
Leann joins Lee to Ann, and it is one of the clearest products of a specific American habit — building new names from two very short old ones.
How old is the name Leann?
Leann first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Leann alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 22,500 people named Leann are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leann most popular?
Leann peaked in 1968, reaching #358 nationally. Today it ranks #4172, 3,814 places below that high. See the whole 1968 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Leann
Ours, offered as ours. Mid-century American naming produced a whole family of these: Leann, Jolene, Marlene, Raelene, Charlene, Roseann. The method was consistent — take two short familiar names or a name and a fashionable ending, and join them. It produced hundreds of names in about forty years and then stopped almost completely. Leann is a clean specimen, and both of its halves are a thousand years old.
Meaningscholars disagree
clearing; grace
Lee is from Old English leah, a woodland clearing, by way of the surname. Ann descends from Hebrew Hannah, grace. Both halves are documented and the compound is twentieth-century American.
Pronouncing Leann
lee-ANN
Two syllables with the stress on the second. Some families say LEE-ann.
Nicknames for Leann
Moderate
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
- 1925
- Most girls named
- 1963636 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #358reached in 1968
- Change vs 2023
- +17.2%34 in 2025, from 29
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.
Leann in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- LeAnn in English — spelling variant
- Leanne in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Leanns among us
people named Leann are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 47,273 born in 2025 was named Leann
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leann
- #4172
- Leann on the 2025 chart
- #893
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leann went to 34 girls in 2025, but Leeann is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 67, which makes it the 893rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,279 places above the chart.
- Leann34
- Leeann33
About 1 girl in 23,989 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 47,273 for Leann 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 Althea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leann's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Althea climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Althea's path sketches the road Leann is walking now.
Leann 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 Leann is headed
Leann should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Leann beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leann in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lee and Ann are both complete names in their own right.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- It is strongly associated with one mid-century American generation.
- Leann, LeAnn, Leanne and Leeann are all in use and capitalization varies.
- The stress is unsettled between the two syllables.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Leann to the vote.
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What they receive
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Leann
Feminine · #4172 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leanns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,500 people named Leann are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leann?
- Leann is the most-used spelling in US records — 34 of the 67 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Leeann.
- How popular is the name Leann in 2025?
- Leann ranks #4172 among US girl names in 2025, with 34 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leann?
- About 1 in every 47,273 US girls born in 2025 was named Leann — 34 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leann with classmates?
- Leann will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leann
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseanna#4172 · Elida#4172 · Neila#4172 · Savina#4172 · Kendyl#4172 · Zakiya#4172 · Naisha#4172 · Ethel#4172
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leann? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leann and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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