Leith
Masculine · “Celtic "wet”
Leith is given to both — 659 boys and 110 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
River names are the oldest layer of place names in Britain. Thames, Avon, Ouse, Don and Esk survived Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norse invasion because a newcomer must ask what a river is called — and Leith, the Water of Leith and Edinburgh's port, belongs to that stratum.
How old is the name Leith?
Leith first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Leith alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 600 people named Leith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leith most popular?
Leith peaked in 1969, reaching #2549 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 5,130 places below that high. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Leith
The oldest place names in a landscape are almost always the rivers, because a river cannot be renamed by a settler who has to ask a local how to find it. Britain's river names are largely pre-English and often pre-Celtic: Avon is simply the Celtic word for river, so Avon means river; Ouse and Esk are similar; Thames is pre-Celtic and its meaning is unrecovered. Leith belongs to that layer. The port was a separate burgh from Edinburgh until 1920, when it was absorbed against the vote of its own residents. The American given name peaks in 1969.
Meaningscholars disagree
Celtic "wet, damp"
Leith is generally connected to a Brittonic or Gaelic word meaning wet or moist, applied to the Water of Leith and then to the port at its mouth. The derivation is not fully settled. Leith is also an Arabic name, layth, meaning lion, which is unrelated and independently in use. Which lies behind an American bearer is a family matter.
Pronouncing Leith
leeth
One syllable, with the unvoiced th of teeth rather than the voiced th of these. Arabic Layth is said layth, with the vowel of lay, and is a different sound.
Nicknames for Leith
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
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 201823 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2549reached in 1969
- Change vs 2024
- +25.0%10 in 2025, from 8
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.
Leith in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ليث in Arabic — transliteration
- Leith in Scots — same name
Leiths among us
people named Leith are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Leith
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 Sion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leith's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sion climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sion's path sketches the road Leith is walking now.
Leith 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
Leith beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leith in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and five letters, easy to say and spell.
- It carries a specific Scottish place with a long history.
- It also functions as an established Arabic name.
- Two unrelated origins share the spelling.
- It is easily confused with Keith in speech.
- The Scottish derivation is genuinely unsettled.
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Leith
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leiths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Leith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Leith in 2025?
- Leith ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leith?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Leith — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leith with classmates?
- Leith will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leith
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leith? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leith 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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