Leighanne
A feminine name of English origin related to "meadow" or "bright."
Name Census estimates that about 1,234 living Americans carry the first name Leighanne. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leighanne today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leighanne births was 1989 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leighanne. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leighanne with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 277,759 Americans
Peak year
1989
48 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,847
Tracked since 1956
Census
Leighanne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,043 people with the first name Leighanne, which placed it at #7,466 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
#7,466
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,043 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leighanne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leighanne is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Leighanne 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 Leighanne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.8% · 1,732
- Two or more races4.2% · 86
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 81
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 69
- Black or African American2.6% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 21
Popularity
Leighanne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leighanne from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 403 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leighanne 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 Leighanne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leighannes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Leighanne, while Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leighanne
The name Leighanne is a combination of two English names - Leigh and Anne. The first part, Leigh, is derived from an Old English word "leah" meaning a meadow or forest clearing. It was originally used as a surname in areas like Lancashire and Cheshire in England.
The second part, Anne, is a Hebrew name meaning "grace" or "favor." It has biblical origins and was popularized in medieval Europe by the cult of St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. The combination of Leigh and Anne into Leighanne likely emerged in the 19th century as a distinctive feminine name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Leighanne was Leighanne Littrell, an American singer and songwriter born in 1971. She is best known as a member of the pop group Avalon and for being married to Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.
Another notable Leighanne was Leighanne Cooper, an English actress born in 1949. She had roles in various British television series in the 1970s and 1980s, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm.
In the literary world, Leighanne Renee Hixi is an American author and poet born in 1963. She has published several collections of poetry and her work has been featured in various anthologies.
In the field of sports, Leighanne Galloway is a former Australian basketball player who represented her country at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was born in 1974 and played professionally in both Australia and Europe.
Finally, Leighanne Dees is an American former model and actress born in 1965. She appeared in various television shows and films in the 1980s and 1990s, including Days of Our Lives and Baywatch.
While the name Leighanne is not extremely common, it has been used throughout different parts of the English-speaking world for several centuries, with notable bearers in various fields such as music, acting, literature, and sports.
People
Leighanne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leighanne 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
Leighanne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leighanne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,234 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leighanne 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 277,759 US residents.
Is Leighanne a common name?
We classify Leighanne as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,313 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leighanne most popular?
The single biggest year for Leighanne was 1989, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leighanne is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leighanne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,043 people with the name Leighanne, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,466 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 Leighanne 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 Leighanne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leighanne appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,039 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Leighanne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leighanne is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Leighanne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leighanne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.8% (1,732 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 Leighanne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leighanne a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leighanne in the SSA data are female. 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 Leighanne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leighanne 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 Leighanne 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 common is the name Leighanne?
You can see how many Americans are named Leighanne on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.