Les
Masculine · “Short form of Leslie or Lester”
Les is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,448 boys against 32 girls since 1880.
Les is a clipping that was registered as a legal name, and that practice has a datable life in American records. Les, Mel, Hal, Bud and Jack all rise through the first half of the twentieth century, peak in the 1950s and 1960s, and then fall away almost completely.
How old is the name Les?
Les first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Les alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 2,500 people named Les are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Les most popular?
Les peaked in 1961, reaching #586 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 6,608 places below that high. See the whole 1961 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Leslie to Les
The story of Les
For about sixty years, American parents did something they had not done before and stopped doing after: they wrote the short form on the birth certificate. The reasons visible in the record are practical rather than sentimental — the formal name was going unused anyway, and the informal, first-name-terms register of mid-century American life made the long form feel starched. The peak for Les is 1961. Leslie itself was a boys' name in the nineteenth century and moved decisively to girls across the twentieth, which removed one of the two fuller names Les could point back to, and the clip went with it. What remains is a small, precisely dated cohort of American men whose legal name is one syllable long.
Meaning
Short form of Leslie or Lester
Leslie is a Scottish place name and surname, from Lesslyn in Aberdeenshire, of debated origin. Lester is the city of Leicester, from the Ligore tribe plus Latin castra, a fort. Les alone has no meaning; it is a clip, and which of the two names it clips varies by family. It is also the French plural article, which is unrelated.
How the name formed
- Leslie
- Les
Related forms: Lez
Pronouncing Les
less
One syllable, rhyming with mess. It is not lay, despite the French spelling of the same three letters.
Nicknames for Les
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 1961182 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #586reached in 1961
- Change vs 2023
- +83.3%11 in 2025, from 6
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.
Les in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lez in English — spelling variant
Less among us
people named Les are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Les
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 Caesar test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Les's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Caesar climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Caesar's path sketches the road Les is walking now.
Les 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
Les beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Les 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 three letters — nothing to shorten, spell out or correct.
- It is an established American name with a documented mid-century history.
- It cannot be mispronounced by an English speaker.
- It reads as a nickname rather than a full name to most people today.
- It dates a bearer strongly to the mid-twentieth century.
- Very short names are sometimes rejected by forms and databases.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Les to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Les? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Les
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Less are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Les are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Les in 2025?
- Les ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Les?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Les — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Les with classmates?
- Les will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Les
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Les? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Les and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle