Lech
A Polish masculine name derived from "lechita" meaning a member of a Slavic tribe.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Lech. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lech today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lech births was 1982 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lech. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Lech. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1982
5 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1982 SSA rank
#6,947
Tracked since 1982
Census
Lech in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 388 people with the first name Lech, which placed it at #24,718 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,718
National first-name rank
People counted
388
388 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lech
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lech is White at 96.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.1%) and Hispanic (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Lech described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Lech at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.1% · 373
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
- Black or African American0.3% · 1
Popularity
Lech: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Lech by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lech during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Lech
The name Lech finds its origins in the Slavic languages, primarily Polish and Czech. It is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "lędzić," meaning "to cultivate land" or "to clear land for cultivation." The name likely emerged in the early medieval period, around the 6th to 9th centuries CE, when Slavic tribes were establishing settlements across central and eastern Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lech comes from Polish folklore and chronicles. According to legend, Lech was the name of one of the three legendary founders of the Polish nation, along with his brothers Rus and Czekh. This mythical figure is said to have lived in the 5th or 6th century CE and is credited with establishing the Polish state.
In the 9th century CE, the name Lech appeared in the Chronica Polonorum (The Chronicle of the Poles), one of the earliest historical sources on the origins of the Polish people. This chronicle, written by Gallus Anonymus, a medieval chronicler, mentions Lech as the eponymous founder of the Polish nation.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Lech. One of the most significant was Lech Wałęsa (born 1943), a Polish politician, labor activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He played a crucial role in the Solidarity movement and the peaceful transition of Poland from a communist regime to a democratic state in the late 20th century.
Another prominent figure with the name Lech was Lech Kaczyński (1949-2010), a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until his tragic death in a plane crash in 2010. He was a prominent figure in the Solidarity movement and played a significant role in Poland's post-communist transition.
In the realm of sports, Lech Poznań is the name of a famous Polish football (soccer) club based in the city of Poznań. The club was founded in 1922 and has won numerous domestic titles, contributing to the popularity of the name in Poland.
Other notable individuals with the name Lech include Lech Majewski (born 1953), a Polish film director and screenwriter, and Lech Pijanowski (born 1956), a Polish chess grandmaster and former World Chess Championship candidate.
People
Lech + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lech as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lech: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lech?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lech going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Lech a common name?
We classify Lech as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lech most popular?
The single biggest year for Lech was 1982, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lech is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lech in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 388 people with the name Lech, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,718 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Lech in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Lech?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lech leans strongly male. 377 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 15 female bearers (3.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Lech?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lech is White at 96.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.1%) and Hispanic (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Lech most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lech in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.1% (373 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Lech in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lech a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lech in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Lech still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lech in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Lech can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Lech as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.