Leland
Feminine · “Old English "fallow land”
Leland is given to boys far more often — 57,999 boys against 557 girls since 1880. See Leland as a boy name
Leland peaks in the American data in 1884, and that is the year Leland Stanford Junior died of typhoid at fifteen in Florence. His parents founded a university in his memory the following year, and the name's curve rises around that moment.
How old is the name Leland?
Leland first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Leland alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 400 people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leland most popular?
Leland peaked in 1884, reaching #930 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,561 places below that high. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lǣge land to Leland
The story of Leland
Fallow land is a farming technology, not neglect: leaving a field uncropped for a year restores it, and the medieval open-field system rotated fields precisely so that a third lay fallow at any time. The word survives in the surname and in the place names Leyland and Leland. Leland Stanford was a railroad magnate and Governor of California; his only child died in 1884, and Stanford University opened in 1891 as a memorial, with the boy's full name in its formal title. The American name figures rise through the 1880s and peak in 1884 itself, which is a correlation in the curve rather than a statement about what any family intended.
Meaning
Old English "fallow land"
From Old English lǣge, fallow or untilled, plus land — ground deliberately left uncultivated for a season to recover. It is an English place name and surname, common in Lancashire. As a personal name it belongs to the American habit of taking surnames as given names, and the female use is a minority alongside a larger male one.
How the name formed
- lǣge land
- Leyland
- Leland
Related forms: Leyland
Pronouncing Leland
LEE-lund
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced. It is not lee-LAND; the weight stays at the front, as in most English place-name surnames.
Nicknames for Leland
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 202221 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #930reached in 1884
- Change vs 2024
- −22.2%14 in 2025, from 18
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.
Leland in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leyland in English — spelling variant
Lelands among us
people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Leland
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Leland 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
Leland beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leland in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and concrete: ground resting between crops.
- Lee is an immediate short form for either sex.
- It is a genuine English surname rather than an invention.
- In America it reads as a male name in nearly every context.
- It is strongly associated with one university and one family.
- The 1880s peak dates a female bearer very precisely.
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What they receive
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Leland
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lelands are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Leland in 2025?
- Leland ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leland?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Leland — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leland with classmates?
- Leland will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leland
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leland? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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