# Greenlee (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/greenlee/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 9,048 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,933 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 34,123 people |
| Change since 2000 | +6.1% (8,531 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Greenlea, Greenleigh, Greenley, Greenly |

## Etymology

Habitational surname from several minor places in England, named from Old English grēne (“green”) + lēah (“clearing, glade”). Equivalent to green + -lee (“lea”); compare Green and Greene.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Greenlee in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 77% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 17% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Similar surnames

Greenlaw, Greenwell, Greenwald, Greenleaf, Greenawalt, Greenhalgh, Greenwalt, Greenhill, Greenland, Grimaldo, Gormley, Grimaldi.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.