Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Leslie was most popular in 1957, when 8,199 American babies were given the name — ranking #102 that year. In 2025 it ranked #1,313, with 425 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 383,418 people named Leslie.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Leslie is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 146 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 383,418 American births named Leslie between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 294,149 are estimated to be alive today.
425 American babies were named Leslie in 2025, ranking #1,313 that year.
Leslie is falling. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 488 births a year, against 1,152 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -58% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Leslie is a unisex name — 70.5% of the 383,418 Americans given it were girls and 29.5% were boys. It changed hands: since 1946 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 93% girls and 7% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 294,149 Americans named Leslie are alive today — 77% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 54 years old, and half are between 37 and 66.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Scottish · a place name, "garden of hollies"
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Leslie on the interactive charts
About · Privacy · Contact
Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org