Legacy
Feminine · Latin roots · “something handed down”
Legacy is given to both — 5,774 girls and 2,709 boys since 1880. See Legacy as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Legacy comes straight out of the English dictionary, and behind the dictionary sits the Latin verb legare, to bequeath or entrust. Lawyers in medieval England used legacie for what a person leaves behind by will, and the word has kept that job for some six hundred years. As a given name it is recent American invention: three even syllables, stress on the first, and a spelling nobody has to be told twice.
How old is the name Legacy?
Legacy first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Legacy is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,700 people named Legacy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Legacy most popular?
Legacy peaked in 2021, reaching #434 nationally. Today it ranks #662, 228 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Legacy appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From legare (Latin, 'to bequeath') to Legacy
The story of Legacy
The line runs from Latin legare, to bequeath or depute, through legatus and Medieval Latin legatia — the office of a legate — into Middle English as legacie. In the fifteenth century the legal sense settled into what English speakers mean today: what someone leaves behind. Its life as a personal name is entirely modern and American, arriving with the wave of aspirational nouns that also brought Legend, Justice and Genesis onto the charts. It has been strongest in Texas, Georgia and Florida, and it is given to boys and girls with the same spelling, leaning to girls without ever settling there.
Meaning
something handed down; a bequest
The English noun traces to Latin legare, 'to bequeath, to entrust to a deputy'. Its earliest English sense was the office or commission of a legate; the sense of property left by will took over by the fifteenth century.
How the name formed
- legareLatin, 'to bequeath'
- legatus
- legatiaMedieval Latin
- legacieMiddle English
- Legacy
Pronouncing Legacy
LEG-uh-see
Exactly as the common noun: three syllables, stress on the first. Because everyone already knows the word, the pronunciation arrives with the spelling and needs no correcting.
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 2021725 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #434reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −13.0%429 in 2025, from 493
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.
Legacy in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Florida.
Legacys among us
people named Legacy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,747 born in 2025 was named Legacy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Legacy
- #662
- Legacy on the 2025 chart
- #497
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Legacy went to 429 girls in 2025, but Legaci and Legacii are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 539, which makes it the 497th most-given girls’ name of the year — 165 places above the chart.
- Legacy429
- Legaci86
- Legacii24
About 1 girl in 2,982 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,747 for Legacy 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 Rosanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Legacy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rosanna climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rosanna's path sketches the road Legacy is walking now.
Legacy 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 Legacy is headed
Legacy 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.
Legacy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Legacy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is the ordinary English word, so it is written correctly on the first try by almost anyone.
- Pronunciation is fixed by the noun — no regional variants, no second guesses.
- One spelling serves a boy or a girl, with nothing to adjust.
- Familiar in sound while still rare in person: a child will likely be the only one in a class without having an unfamiliar name.
- It is a word before it is a name, and people hear the word each time. That can bring remarks about family, inheritance or expectation — friendly, usually, but frequent.
- In American English the word does other work too: legacy admissions at colleges, and 'legacy systems' in tech, meaning outdated. Background noise rather than a real problem, but worth knowing.
- No short form has established itself, so it will mostly be used in full — three syllables, every time.
- The wave is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. Adult bearers are few for now, which some parents like and others weigh.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Legacy to the vote.
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What they receive
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Legacy
Feminine · Latin roots · #662 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Legacys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Legacy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Legacy?
- Legacy is the most-used spelling in US records — 429 of the 539 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Legaci and Legacii.
- How popular is the name Legacy in 2025?
- Legacy ranks #662 among US girl names in 2025, with 429 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Legacy?
- About 1 in every 3,747 US girls born in 2025 was named Legacy — 429 in all.
- Will my child share the name Legacy with classmates?
- Legacy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Legacy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Myra#662 · Briana#661 · Melina#660 · Isabela#664 · Noor#659 · Jessica#665 · Oakleigh#666 · Jolene#666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Legacy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Legacy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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