How common is the surname Leigh?

10,213 people in the United States had the surname Leigh in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 30,231 Americans. It ranked 3,499th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Leigh?

Vivien Leigh, British actress (1913–1967), followed by Janet Leigh.

Where is the surname Leigh most common?

Wikidata records people named Leigh in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and 1 other country.

Is the surname Leigh getting more or less common?

More common. 9,756 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 10,213 in 2010, up 4.7%.

Is Leigh also a first name?

Yes. Leigh is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Leigh

An English place surname, carried by 10,213 people in the United States.

Pronounced /liː/ 1 syllable Soundex L200 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Leigh is more common than 97.8% of them.

Origin

English origin

From the nominative case of Old English lēah (“wood, meadow”), 'dweller by the wood or clearing'.

Leigh is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 10,213 people named Leigh in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 30,231 Americans. That is up 4.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 9,756.

#3,499

rank among US surnames

10,213

people in 2010

3.5

per 100,000 Americans

+4.7%

change since 2000 (was #3,350)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#3,490	Searcy	10,243	30,142
#3,491	Logsdon	10,242	30,145
#3,492	Culbertson	10,240	30,151
#3,493	Glaser	10,235	30,166
#3,494	Weems	10,231	30,177
#3,495	McCallum	10,229	30,183
#3,496	Neil	10,228	30,186

Who is named Leigh

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

77% of people named Leigh identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 77%
Black (not Hispanic) 15%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.7%
Asian and Pacific Islander 2.4%
Two or more races 2.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Leighs

21 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Vivien Leigh
British actress (1913–1967)
Janet Leigh
American actress (1927–2004)
Jennifer Jason Leigh
American actress (born 1962)
Chyler Leigh
American actress, singer and model, born 1982
Cherami Leigh
American actress, born 1988
Suzanna Leigh
British actress (1945-2017)
Carol Leigh
American artist and activist and sex workers' rights activist (1951–2022)
Simone Leigh
African American artist (born 1967)
Dorian Leigh
American model (1917–2008)
Katie Leigh
American voice actress, born 1958
Richard Leigh
American writer (1943–2007)
Nelson Leigh
American actor (1905-1985)

Notable Leighs come mostly from the United States (17), the United Kingdom (2) and Australia (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Leigh

Leigh has the Soundex code L200, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code L200.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Leigh come from?: From the nominative case of Old English lēah (“wood, meadow”), 'dweller by the wood or clearing'.
How common is the surname Leigh?: 10,213 people in the United States had the surname Leigh in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 30,231 Americans. It ranked 3,499th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Leigh?: In the 2010 Census, 77% of people named Leigh identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Leigh?: Vivien Leigh, British actress (1913–1967), followed by Janet Leigh.
Where is the surname Leigh most common?: Wikidata records people named Leigh in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and 1 other country.
How do you pronounce Leigh?: Leigh is /liː/, one syllable.
What type of surname is Leigh?: Leigh is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Leigh getting more or less common?: More common. 9,756 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 10,213 in 2010, up 4.7%.
What are other spellings of Leigh?: Lee.
Is Leigh also a first name?: Yes. Leigh is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.