Leidy
Feminine · “lady”
Leidy is the English word lady, respelled to be readable in Spanish. It is one of the most successful members of a whole class of Colombian and Venezuelan names taken from English and rewritten phonetically — Yeison from Jason, Brayan from Brian, Yulieth from Julieth, Estiven from Steven. In Colombia it has been a common name for decades, and it reached American birth records through that community.
How old is the name Leidy?
Leidy first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Leidy alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 900 people named Leidy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leidy most popular?
Leidy peaked in 2006, reaching #3264 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 2,458 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hlaefdige to Leidy
The story of Leidy
From the 1970s onward, Colombian naming took a strong turn towards English-language sounds, and because Spanish spelling is phonetic the borrowings had to be rewritten to survive. J is said as an h in Spanish, so Jason became Yeison; the English long i needed ei, so lady became Leidy. The pattern was widespread enough to become a recognized feature of Colombian and Venezuelan naming, and it produced hundreds of names of this kind. Migration carried them north, and American birth records show Leidy in numbers from the 1980s onward, peaking in the mid-2000s. In its home countries it is an ordinary name, not a novelty.
Meaning
lady
The source is the English word lady, from Old English hlaefdige — literally 'loaf-kneader', the female counterpart of hlaford, 'loaf-keeper', which became lord. That is a genuine and rather wonderful etymology: the two most formal titles in English both began in the bread store. Leidy is that word written the way Spanish orthography requires in order to produce the English sound, since Spanish la-dy would be read quite differently.
How the name formed
- hlaefdige
- lady
- Leidy
Related forms: Leydi · Leidi · Lady
Pronouncing Leidy
LAY-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the English word lady — which is the point of the spelling. Spanish speakers reading it aloud arrive at the English pronunciation, which is what the ei was chosen to achieve.
Nicknames for Leidy
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 200650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3264reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%21 in 2025, from 30
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.
Leidy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leydi in Spanish — spelling variant
- Leidi in Spanish — spelling variant
- Lady in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Leidys among us
people named Leidy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Leidy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leidy
- #5722
- Leidy on the 2025 chart
- #920
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leidy went to 21 girls in 2025, but Leydi and Leydy are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 40, which makes it the 920th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,802 places above the chart.
- Leidy21
- Leydi14
- Leydy5
About 1 girl in 40,182 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Leidy 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 Jacquelina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leidy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquelina climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquelina's path sketches the road Leidy is walking now.
Leidy 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
Leidy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leidy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is phonetic in Spanish and immediately understandable in English.
- The word behind it has one of the best-documented etymologies in the language.
- It is entirely ordinary in Colombia and Venezuela, so it carries a real community history.
- English speakers read it as a respelling of a common noun rather than as a name.
- Leidy, Leidi and Leydi all circulate, so records drift between them.
- The literal meaning is a title, which some adults find heavier on an adult than on a child.
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What they receive
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Leidy
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leidys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Leidy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leidy?
- Leidy is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 40 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Leydi and Leydy.
- How popular is the name Leidy in 2025?
- Leidy ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leidy?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Leidy — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leidy with classmates?
- Leidy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leidy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leidy? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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