Leslie

“Garden of hollies” — Scottish Gaelic origin

Girl's name · #712 in the US (2025) · Retro

Leslie reached its best rank, #56, in 1981 and ranked #712 in 2025. Roughly 270,000 girls have been named Leslie since 1880. In all that time it has never once missed a year of the national records. Together with its spelling variant Lesly (#1448), Leslie would rank around #558 with about 540 births last year — the newborns split about 73/27 between Leslie and Lesly.

Around the world: about 1 in 5,200 girls in Canada (2024) · about 1 in 11,000 girls in Switzerland (2024) · about 1 in 11,000 girls in France (2025).

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 32 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Famous Leslies

Leslie Caron — French and American actress and dancer (born 1931)
Leslie Mann — American actress
Leslie Bibb — American actress
Leslie Uggams — American actress and singer
Leslie Grossman — American actress

In stories & tradition

Leslie Winkle — The Big Bang Theory
Leslie Thompkins — Gotham · Detective Comics
Leslie Knope — Parks and Recreation

What Leslies become

Among 1,814 notable people named Leslie:

Similar names: Kelly · Lexi · Julie · Bridget · Tara · Casey

Browse more girl names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.

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