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Girl or boy · Old English
Leigh
Say it: LEE
Meaning
From an English surname for someone living by a clearing, Old English lēah 'wood, clearing'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Used for boys and girls; in the US mostly a girls' name and very common as a middle name.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 45,124 babies given this name since 1882
- At its height in 1969, about 1 in 1,100 girls
- 46 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Lee, Lea
Famous bearers
- Vivien Leigh, English actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.