Lester
Masculine · “Roman camp on the Legra”
Lester is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 130,688 boys against 1,359 girls since 1880. See Lester as a girl name
Lester is a Roman camp. The -cester and -chester at the end of English town names is the Latin word for a fortified camp, borrowed by the English from the ruins they found and stuck onto the front half of whatever the place had been called before. A name ending that way is a note that the Romans were there.
How old is the name Lester?
Lester was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lester alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 44,500 people named Lester are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lester most popular?
Lester peaked in 1906, reaching #52 nationally. Today it ranks #1634, 1,582 places below that high. See the whole 1906 chart.
Lester appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From A Latin word for a fortified camp to Lester
The story of Lester
The town was one of the five boroughs of the Danelaw. When the Danish armies settled the east midlands in the ninth century they organized the territory around five fortified towns, each with its own army and its own assembly, and the five together made a political unit that outlasted the Danish kingdom itself. The law of that area stayed different from English law for generations, the place names in it are still Norse, and the counties drawn around the five boroughs are the counties on the map today. The name is therefore a Roman military term, in an English mouth, attached to a British river, governing a Danish borough, which is about as much of the country's history as four syllables can hold.
Meaningscholars disagree
Roman camp on the Legra
The second element is secure: it is the Latin word for a camp, taken into English early and used for old Roman sites. The first element is not: it has been read as the name of a river and as the name of a people who lived on it, and the two proposals cannot be separated on the evidence.
How the name formed
- A Latin word for a fortified camp
- Borrowed by the English for Roman sites
- One of the five boroughs of the Danelaw
- A surname, and then an American first name
Pronouncing Lester
LES-ter
Two syllables, stress on the first. The English town this comes from is spelled with four more letters than it says, and the American name is simply that pronunciation written down.
Nicknames for Lester
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
- 19183,229 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #52reached in 1906
- Change vs 2022
- +7.3%103 in 2025, from 96
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.
Lester in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Pennsylvania, Florida.
Lesters among us
people named Lester are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,583 born in 2025 was named Lester
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
Lester 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 Lester is headed
Lester should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Lester beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lester in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, clear and needs no coaching from anybody.
- Les and Lee are two well-established short forms.
- It carries a genuine and unusually layered piece of English history.
- It is strongly associated with an early twentieth-century generation.
- The meaning is a place rather than a quality, which some families want.
- The spelling appears on the register for both sexes in small numbers.
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What they receive
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Lester
Masculine · #1634 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lesters are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 44,500 people named Lester are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lester in 2025?
- Lester ranks #1634 among US boy names in 2025, with 103 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lester?
- About 1 in every 16,583 US boys born in 2025 was named Lester — 103 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lester with classmates?
- Lester will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lester
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Armaan#1634 · Jyaire#1634 · Hiram#1634 · Hansel#1634 · Granger#1634 · Guy#1634 · Yoel#1634 · Linkin#1634
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lester? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lester and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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