# Leach (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/leach/  
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 | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 44,581 |
| US rank (2010) | 772 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 6,925 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.1% (43,666 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /liːt͡ʃ/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | Latch, Leech, Leetch, Leitch, Litch, Lytch |

## Etymology

Two main origins: * Occupational surname for a physician, from Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”). * Topographic surname for someone who lived by a boggy stream, from Old English læcc (“boggy stream”) (related to Proto-Germanic *lekaną), or from several English placenames related to this (compare Leake).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Leach 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) | 80% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 14% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Leach in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

## People named Leach

- Rick Leach, American tennis player (born 1964)
- Rosemary Leach, British actress (1935–2017)
- Jesse Leach, American singer
- Jim Leach, American politician (1942-2024)
- Nicole Leach, American actress, dancer, and singer
- Wilford Leach, American film director (1929–1988)
- Jay Leach, American ice hockey player
- Ellie Leach, British actress
- Brian Leetch, American Hall of Fame Ice Hockey Defenseman
- John Leech, British caricaturist and illustrator (1817–1864)

## Similar surnames

Leech, Leitch, Lach, Lesh, Lech, Latch, Leak, Loesch, Lesch, Leas, Leja, Lewis.

## 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.