Lennis
A masculine name of Proto-Germanic origin meaning "small and swift".
Name Census estimates that about 793 living Americans carry the first name Lennis. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 69.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Lennis today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lennis births was 1947 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lennis. 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
- • The typical person named Lennis is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lennis' were born before 1968.
People living today
793
~ 1 in 432,225 Americans
Peak year
1947
51 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2013 SSA rank
#13,276
Tracked since 1898
Census
Lennis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 968 people with the first name Lennis, which placed it at #12,739 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
#12,739
National first-name rank
People counted
968
968 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lennis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lennis is White at 62.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.2%) and Hispanic (12.5%). 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 Lennis 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 Lennis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.0% · 600
- Black or African American21.2% · 205
- Hispanic or Latino12.5% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 18
- Two or more races1.9% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Lennis
Lennis is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,754 total registrations, 1,217 (69.4%) were male and 537 (30.6%) were female.
Lennis as a male name
- Ranked #13,276 in 2013
- 5 male births in 2013
- Peak: 1948 (33 births)
Lennis as a female name
- Ranked #16,830 in 2001
- 5 female births in 2001
- Peak: 1946 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lennis on both sides of the split. Of the 963 people counted with this name, 629 were male (65.3%) and 334 were female (34.7%).
Popularity
Lennis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lennis from the 1890s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 344 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lennis 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 Lennis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lennis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Lennis, while North Carolina, Missouri, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lennis
The name Lennis has its roots in the ancient Germanic languages, tracing back to the Early Medieval period around the 5th to 8th centuries. It is believed to have originated from a combination of the Germanic elements "lenn" meaning "shield" or "protection" and the suffix "-is" which denotes a diminutive form, akin to the modern "-ie" or "-y" endings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lennis can be found in the Codex Traditionum Fuldensium, a 9th-century cartulary from the Fulda Monastery in modern-day Germany. This document contains a reference to a landowner named Lennis who donated a parcel of land to the monastery in the year 817.
In the 11th century, a monk named Lennis of Trier is mentioned in the chronicles of the St. Matthias Abbey in Trier, Germany. He is noted for his contributions to the abbey's library and his skill in transcribing manuscripts.
During the Crusades, a knight named Lennis de Montfort is recorded as having participated in the Third Crusade (1189–1192) under the command of Richard the Lionheart. He is mentioned in the chronicles of the time as having distinguished himself in the battles against Saladin's forces in the Holy Land.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Lennis Eckhart lived in the town of Hochheim, in what is now Germany. He was a respected vintner and is credited with developing a new method of pruning grapevines, which contributed to the improvement of the local wine industry.
Another historical figure bearing the name Lennis was a 16th-century Dutch navigator and explorer named Lennis van Diemen. He is known for his voyages to the East Indies and his role in the establishment of the Dutch East India Company's presence in the region, particularly in the areas now known as Indonesia and Australia.
People
Lennis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lennis 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
Lennis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lennis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 793 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lennis 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 432,225 US residents.
Is Lennis a common name?
We classify Lennis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,754 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lennis most popular?
The single biggest year for Lennis was 1947, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lennis is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lennis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 968 people with the name Lennis, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,739 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 Lennis 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 Lennis?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Lennis on both sides of the split. Of the 963 people counted with this name, 629 were male (65.3%) and 334 were female (34.7%). 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 Lennis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lennis is White at 62.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.2%) and Hispanic (12.5%). 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 Lennis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lennis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.0% (600 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 Lennis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lennis a male name?
Yes, 69.4% of people registered as Lennis 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 Lennis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lennis 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 Lennis 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 are named Lennis?
Want to know how many people share the name Lennis? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.