Lesley

Where Lesley comes from

From a placename in Aberdeenshire, originally Lesslyn, Scottish Gaelic lios cuileann (“garden of hollies”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Lesley
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1893
    First appearance
    #1,437 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1941
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1946
    Lesley Gore born
    American singer
  4. 1956
    Lesley Manville born
    British actress
  5. 1979
    Peak, #267
    913 babies named Lesley — more than any year before or since.
  6. 1989
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #566.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, used since the 18th century. Popular in the U.K. in the mid-20th century.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Lesley Manville · British actress, born 1956
  • Lesley Gore · American singer, 1946–2015
  • Lesley Ann Warren · American actress, born 1946
  • Lesley Roy · Irish singer, born 1986
  • Lesley Ugochukwu · French footballer, born 2004

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.