Humanverse

Leigh vs Leilene

American parents have registered 45,349 Leighs since 1880, against 157 Leilenes. Leigh is still ahead, with 31 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Leigh against Leilene, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Leigh Leilene

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 131 years in which either name was published, Leigh for 130 years and Leilene for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Leigh Leilene
Total US births 45,349157
Most in one year 1,64181
Babies in 2025 31under 5
Estimated living today 40,000160
Median age today 5218
Peak year 19692007
Best rank 201st girls2,348th girls
Rank in 2025 4,460thunranked
First recorded 18822007
Girls / boys 40,242 / 5,107157 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Leighs alive today are over 52; half the Leilenes are over 18. That is 34 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Leigh and Leilene.