Lesli
Feminine · “Scottish place name”
Scottish place-name surnames usually point at one place. Leslie is Lesslyn in Aberdeenshire, and there is only one — unlike English surnames such as Bradley or Thornton, which come from dozens of villages scattered across the counties and identify nothing.
How old is the name Lesli?
Lesli first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Lesli alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 5,500 people named Lesli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lesli most popular?
Lesli peaked in 1967, reaching #833 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 7,052 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lesslyn to Lesli
The story of Lesli
The difference in traceability is a consequence of how the two surname systems formed. Scottish territorial surnames often attach to a single estate held by a single family, so Leslie, Douglas, Ogilvie and Murray each point at one place and one lineage. English place-name surnames attach to villages, and the same village name recurs across the country — there are Bradleys, Nortons and Thorntons in a dozen counties — so the surname says what kind of place an ancestor came from and not which one. Leslie crossed to American girls in the mid-twentieth century and the male use faded; Lesli peaks in 1967.
Meaningscholars disagree
Scottish place name, of contested sense
From Lesslyn in Aberdeenshire, the seat of the Leslie family. The Gaelic derivation is disputed, with readings including a garden of hollies and a grey fort; neither is settled. Lesli is an American respelling with the -i ending, which by convention reads as feminine. The name was masculine in Britain into the twentieth century.
How the name formed
- Lesslyn
- Leslie
- Lesli
Related forms: Leslie · Lesley
Pronouncing Lesli
LESS-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Leslie, Lesley and Lesli are pronounced identically; in Britain the -ey spelling is conventionally female and the -ie male, which is the reverse of the usual American rule.
Nicknames for Lesli
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 2001166 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #833reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- −13.3%13 in 2025, from 15
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.
Lesli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leslie in English — spelling variant
- Lesley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Leslis among us
people named Lesli are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Lesli
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lesli
- #7885
- Lesli on the 2025 chart
- #798
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lesli went to 13 girls in 2025, but Lesly is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 162, which makes it the 798th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,087 places above the chart.
- Lesly149
- Lesli13
About 1 girl in 9,921 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Lesli 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
The Larry test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lesli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Larry climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Larry's path sketches the road Lesli is walking now.
Lesli 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
Lesli beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lesli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It points at a single documented Scottish estate.
- It is short, two syllables and read correctly on sight.
- The -i ending reads as clearly feminine in America.
- Leslie is the standard spelling and will be substituted.
- The Gaelic derivation is genuinely disputed.
- The 1960s peak dates a bearer fairly clearly.
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Lesli
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leslis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Lesli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lesli?
- Lesli is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lesly is the more common one — 149 births in 2025 against 13 for Lesli.
- How popular is the name Lesli in 2025?
- Lesli ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lesli?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Lesli — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lesli with classmates?
- Lesli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lesli
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lesli? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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