Leigh
Feminine · “a clearing in the woods”
Leigh is given to both — 40,242 girls and 5,107 boys since 1880. See Leigh as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Leigh is the only member of its family that stands alone. The Old English leah — a clearing in woodland — ends thousands of place names and a great many personal ones, but almost always as a suffix: Ashley, Bradley, Hadley, Kayleigh. Leigh is the word by itself, and it has been a name in its own right for a century.
How old is the name Leigh?
Leigh first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Leigh alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 37,000 people named Leigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leigh most popular?
Leigh peaked in 1969, reaching #201 nationally. Today it ranks #4460, 4,259 places below that high. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From leah to Leigh
The story of Leigh
The surname Leigh belongs to families who lived at one of the many places called that, and it became a given name in the twentieth century — helped considerably by an actress born Vivian Hartley who took Leigh as a stage surname and then became internationally famous. The name went to girls and boys both, and its most useful modern life has been as a middle name: it is a single open syllable, it attaches to almost anything, and it is the ending in every -leigh name in the country.
Meaning
a clearing in the woods
Old English leah names a clearing, a glade or a piece of open ground within woodland, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place naming because clearing woodland was one of the most productive activities in early England. The derivation is not disputed. Leigh is the spelling that survived in place names and surnames; -ley is the same word in the same position, spelled differently.
How the name formed
- leah
- Leigh
Pronouncing Leigh
LEE
LEE, one syllable, rhyming with see. The gh is silent — it recorded a consonant that Old and Middle English had and modern English lost, the same one that has gone quiet in night and through.
Nicknames for Leigh
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 19701,483 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #201reached in 1969
- Change vs 2023
- −18.4%31 in 2025, from 38
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.
Leigh in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Pennsylvania.
Leighs among us
people named Leigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was named Leigh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Melba test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melba climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melba's path sketches the road Leigh is walking now.
Leigh 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 Leigh is headed
Leigh 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.
Leigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and a completely settled sound, impossible to mispronounce.
- It works for either child, and has done throughout its history.
- The Old English word behind it is concrete and is still visible on every English map.
- Lee is the far more common spelling of the same sound and will be substituted constantly.
- Five letters for one syllable means the gh has to be dictated every time.
- A single syllable against a short surname lands abruptly, which is part of why the name works better in the middle.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Leigh to the vote.
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What they receive
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Leigh
Feminine · #4460 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 37,000 people named Leigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Leigh in 2025?
- Leigh ranks #4460 among US girl names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leigh?
- About 1 in every 51,847 US girls born in 2025 was named Leigh — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leigh with classmates?
- Leigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jayce#4460 · Nikita#4460 · Magali#4460 · Emari#4460 · Rilyn#4460 · Danyla#4460 · Lynleigh#4460 · Mandy#4460
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leigh and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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