Leland
Masculine · Old English roots · “fallow land”
Leland is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 57,999 boys against 557 girls since 1880. See Leland as a girl name
Leland began as a patch of English ground — land lying fallow — before it became a surname, crossed the Atlantic, and settled in as a first name. It has two clean syllables, the first one already a name of its own, and it has never dropped off the American record in all the time such records have been kept.
How old is the name Leland?
Leland was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Leland alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 33,000 people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leland most popular?
Leland peaked in 1921, reaching #171 nationally. Today it ranks #494, 323 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lǣge land (Old English) to Leland
The story of Leland
The name comes from the English landscape before it belonged to any person: Leyland in Lancashire takes its name from ground left fallow, and families from such places carried the name with them as a surname. In America, surnames migrated freely into first-name position, and Leland made that jump early and stayed. Its best-known nineteenth-century bearer, Leland Stanford — railroad builder, governor of California, and founder with his wife of the university named for their son — kept the name visible on the West Coast in particular, which is one reason California still shows among its strongest regions.
Meaning
fallow land; untilled ground
From Old English lǣge (fallow, left unploughed) plus land. Some references soften this to "meadow land," which describes the same kind of open, uncropped field.
How the name formed
- lǣge landOld English
- LeylandLancashire place name
- LelandEnglish surname
- LelandAmerican given name
Related forms: Leyland · Lealand
Pronouncing Leland
LEE-land
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second syllable is the ordinary word land, said lightly. Nearly everyone who reads it gets it right the first time.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20071,029 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #171reached in 1921
- Change vs 2022
- +0.5%612 in 2025, from 609
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
- Lealand in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Michigan, Texas.
Lelands among us
people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,791 born in 2025 was named Leland
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leland
- #494
- Leland on the 2025 chart
- #413
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leland went to 612 boys in 2025, but Leeland is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 706, which makes it the 413th most-given boys’ name of the year — 81 places above the chart.
- Leland612
- Leeland94
About 1 boy in 2,419 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,791 for Leland 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
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
Where Leland is headed
Leland should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Leland beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leland in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads exactly as it is spelled — LEE-land — so it rarely needs correcting out loud.
- Comes with Lee already attached, a short form that stands on its own as a name and needs no explaining.
- Unbroken presence in American records from the very start of them, which is a rare thing for a surname-name.
- Familiar to adults from the older generations who carry it, while a child today is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Most living Lelands are well past retirement age, so the name currently reads as an older man's name to many adults. Names in that position often circle back, but a child would be ahead of the curve rather than in step with it.
- The variant spelling Leyland exists and is the usual form of the English place name, so expect an occasional stray Y from people writing it down.
- Lee will happen whether or not you plan on it — worth deciding early whether that suits you, since a two-syllable name with an obvious one-syllable exit tends to get used both ways.
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What they receive
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Leland
Masculine · Old English roots · #494 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 33,000 people named Leland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leland?
- Leland is the most-used spelling in US records — 612 of the 706 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Leeland.
- How popular is the name Leland in 2025?
- Leland ranks #494 among US boy names in 2025, with 612 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leland?
- About 1 in every 2,791 US boys born in 2025 was named Leland — 612 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.
Donovan#495 · Collin#493 · Armani#495 · Caspian#491 · Rodrigo#491 · Alessandro#497 · Arjun#490 · Jasiah#498
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leland? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leland and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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