Lessie
A diminutive form of the name Elizabeth or Eliza of Greek origin meaning "consecrated to God".
Name Census estimates that about 2,713 living Americans carry the first name Lessie. It is a predominantly female name (93.7% of registrations). The average person named Lessie today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lessie births was 1916 (407 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lessie. 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 Lessie is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lessies were born before 1965.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 126,338 Americans
Peak year
1916
407 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
1986 SSA rank
#7,383
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lessie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,876 people with the first name Lessie, which placed it at #5,785 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
#5,785
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,876 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
61.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lessie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lessie is Black at 61.1%. The next largest groups are White (32.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Lessie 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 Lessie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American61.1% · 1,757
- White32.9% · 947
- Two or more races2.8% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 75
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Lessie
Lessie leans heavily female at 93.7% of total registrations, but 945 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lessie as a male name
- Ranked #7,383 in 1986
- 5 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1925 (31 births)
Lessie as a female name
- Ranked #12,883 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1916 (382 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lessie leans strongly female. 2,674 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 202 male bearers (7.0%).
Popularity
Lessie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lessie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 3,203 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lessie 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 Lessie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lessies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama recorded the most babies named Lessie, while Illinois, California, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 556 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lessie
The name Lessie is of English origin and is believed to have originated in the late 19th century. It is a diminutive form of the name Elizabeth, which itself is derived from the Hebrew name Elisheva, meaning "God is my oath."
Lessie is thought to have emerged as a nickname or pet form of Elizabeth, with the addition of the diminutive suffix "-ie." This trend of creating shortened and affectionate versions of formal names was popular in English-speaking countries during the Victorian era.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Lessie can be found in the 1887 novel "The Honorable Peter Stirling" by Paul Leicester Ford, where it is the name of a character. However, it is possible that the name was in use earlier, as written records from that time period may be incomplete.
In the early 20th century, Lessie gained some prominence as the name of Lessie Brown, an American musician and composer born in 1904 in Kansas. She is best known for her work in the field of African American folk music and for collaborating with notable figures such as Langston Hughes.
Another notable individual named Lessie was Lessie Jo Frazier, an American mathematician and computer scientist born in 1921. She made significant contributions to the field of numerical analysis and worked on important projects such as the development of the FORTRAN programming language.
In the realm of literature, Lessie is the name of a character in the 1925 novel "The Mocking Bird" by Walter Edmonds. The book, set in rural New York in the late 19th century, depicts the life of a young girl named Lessie and her family.
A lesser-known figure named Lessie was Lessie Moore, an American educator and civil rights activist born in 1885 in Mississippi. She played a significant role in promoting equal educational opportunities for African American students in the early 20th century.
While not as common as some other names, Lessie has left its mark in various fields throughout history, from music and literature to mathematics and civil rights activism.
People
Lessie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lessie 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
Lessie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lessie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,713 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lessie 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 126,338 US residents.
Is Lessie a common name?
We classify Lessie as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,017 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lessie most popular?
The single biggest year for Lessie was 1916, when 407 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lessie is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lessie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,876 people with the name Lessie, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,785 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 Lessie 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 Lessie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lessie leans strongly female. 2,674 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 202 male bearers (7.0%). 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 Lessie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lessie is Black at 61.1%. The next largest groups are White (32.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Lessie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lessie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.1% (1,757 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 Lessie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lessie a female name?
Yes, 93.7% of people registered as Lessie 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 Lessie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lessie 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 Lessie 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 the name Lessie?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Lessie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.