Lehi
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "jawbone" or "cheek".
Name Census estimates that about 340 living Americans carry the first name Lehi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lehi today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lehi births was 2005 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lehi. 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.
People living today
340
~ 1 in 1,008,101 Americans
Peak year
2005
15 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,459
Tracked since 1973
Popularity
Lehi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lehi from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 95 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lehi 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 Lehi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lehis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lehi
The name Lehi is derived from the ancient Hebrew language and has its origins in the Bible. It first appears in the Book of Mormon, a sacred text of the Latter-day Saint movement, as the name of a prophet who lived in Jerusalem around 600 BC.
Lehi is believed to be a Hebrew name meaning "jawbone" or "cheekbone", possibly referring to the jawbone of a donkey used by the biblical figure Samson as a weapon against the Philistines. The name may also be related to the Hebrew word "lehi", meaning "to travel" or "to journey", which could be a nod to Lehi's journey from Jerusalem to the Americas as described in the Book of Mormon.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Lehi is found in the Book of Mormon, where it is the name of a prophet who received a vision from God and was commanded to leave Jerusalem with his family. According to the narrative, Lehi and his family journeyed through the wilderness and eventually sailed across the ocean to the promised land, which is believed to be the Americas.
Throughout history, there are several notable individuals who have borne the name Lehi. One of the most famous was Lehi Rollins (1788-1843), an early leader in the Latter-day Saint movement and a member of the Council of Fifty, a governing body established by Joseph Smith.
Another notable Lehi was Lehi Nephi Unterkircher (1885-1971), a Swiss-born artist and sculptor who worked in Salt Lake City, Utah. His works include sculptures and bas-reliefs adorning several Latter-day Saint temples and public buildings.
Lehi Willard Jones (1854-1937) was a prominent leader in the Latter-day Saint community in Arizona and served as the first president of the St. Joseph Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Lehi Quincy Hamel (1892-1962) was a American football player and coach. He played quarterback for the University of Utah and later coached at several universities, including Brigham Young University and the University of Denver.
Lehi Nephi Downey (1873-1957) was a Latter-day Saint missionary and church leader who served as a member of the church's Presiding Bishopric from 1938 to 1949.
People
Lehi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lehi 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
Lehi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lehi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 340 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lehi 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 1,008,101 US residents.
Is Lehi a common name?
We classify Lehi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 348 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lehi most popular?
The single biggest year for Lehi was 2005, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lehi is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lehi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lehi 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.
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.