# Lesley (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/lesley/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys and girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “garden of hollies” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Leslie |
| US babies named this | 39,098 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 4,797 / 34,301 (88% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 306, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From a placename in Aberdeenshire, originally Lesslyn, Scottish Gaelic lios cuileann (“garden of hollies”).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 175 | 1,330 |
| 2012 | 131 | 1,642 |
| 2013 | 120 | 1,735 |
| 2014 | 113 | 1,814 |
| 2015 | 96 | 2,050 |
| 2016 | 76 | 2,438 |
| 2017 | 52 | 3,119 |
| 2018 | 62 | 2,770 |
| 2019 | 51 | 3,149 |
| 2020 | 51 | 3,124 |
| 2021 | 40 | 3,774 |
| 2022 | 51 | 3,196 |
| 2023 | 29 | 4,706 |
| 2024 | 36 | 4,085 |
| 2025 | 30 | 4,617 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 21 | 3,657 |
| 2000 | 17 | 4,496 |
| 2001 | 9 | 7,270 |
| 2002 | 11 | 6,353 |
| 2003 | 12 | 6,104 |
| 2004 | 9 | 7,929 |
| 2005 | 8 | 8,785 |
| 2006 | 12 | 6,734 |
| 2007 | 7 | 10,448 |
| 2008 | 5 | 13,777 |
| 2009 | 10 | 8,067 |
| 2010 | 7 | 10,328 |
| 2011 | 7 | 10,323 |
| 2015 | 6 | 11,550 |
| 2016 | 8 | 9,359 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 19 | 1,243 |
| 2006 | 11 | 1,983 |
| 2007 | 8 | 2,627 |
| 2008 | 8 | 2,721 |
| 2009 | 11 | 2,148 |
| 2010 | 9 | 2,589 |
| 2011 | 5 | 4,049 |
| 2012 | 5 | 4,171 |
| 2013 | 7 | 3,160 |
| 2014 | 9 | 2,659 |
| 2015 | 3 | 5,730 |
| 2016 | 3 | 5,785 |
| 2017 | 6 | 3,583 |
| 2018 | 3 | 5,666 |
| 2024 | 6 | 3,695 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 3 | 3,849 |
| 2012 | 3 | 4,805 |

## People named Lesley

- Lesley Manville, British actress (born 1956)
- Lesley Gore, American singer (1946–2015)
- Lesley Ann Warren, American actress
- Lesley Ugochukwu, French footballer (born 2004)
- Lesley Turner Bowrey, Australian tennis player
- Lesley Nicol, English actress
- Lesley Stahl, American journalist (born 1941)
- Lesley Bush, diver
- Lesley Sharp, British actress
- Lesley Ashburner, athletics competitor (1883–1950)
- Lesley Thompson, Canadian coxswain
- Lesley Fera, American actress

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.