Letty
A feminine diminutive form of the Spanish name Leticia, meaning "gladness."
Name Census estimates that about 2,792 living Americans carry the first name Letty. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Letty today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Letty births was 2016 (163 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Letty. 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 Letty with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 122,763 Americans
Peak year
2016
163 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,607
Tracked since 1880
Census
Letty in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,487 people with the first name Letty, which placed it at #5,056 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
#5,056
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,487 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Letty
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Letty is Hispanic at 44.3%. The next largest groups are White (42.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). 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 Letty 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 Letty at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino44.3% · 1,544
- White42.1% · 1,469
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 250
- Black or African American3.1% · 109
- Two or more races2.1% · 72
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 43
Popularity
Letty: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Letty from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 984 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Letty remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Letty 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 Letty during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lettys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Letty, while West Virginia, Utah, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 46 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Letty
The given name Letty is a diminutive form of the name Letitia, which has its origins in the Late Latin name Laetitia. Laetitia was a feminine form of the masculine name Laetitius, derived from the Latin word "laetitia," meaning joy, happiness, or gladness. The name Letty can be traced back to the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century, when it emerged as a shortened version of Letitia.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Letty can be found in the medieval English text, "The Brut" by Layamon, written around 1200 AD. In this work, the name is spelled as "Lette," which is believed to be an early variant of Letty. Another early reference to the name can be found in the 14th-century poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," where a character named "Lady Lette" is mentioned.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Letty. One such person was Letty Lind (1820-1887), a Swedish opera singer who achieved international fame during the 19th century. Another notable Letty was Letty Cowie (1890-1983), a Scottish philanthropist and feminist who campaigned for women's rights and founded the Letty Cowie Youth Centre in Edinburgh.
In the literary world, the name Letty has been used for fictional characters, such as Letty Foxton in the novel "The Vicar of Bullhampton" by Anthony Trollope (1870), and Letty Mayberry in the novel "Letty's Treasure" by Mary S. Blanchard (1899). Additionally, the name has been associated with historical figures like Letty Lind (1807-1892), an English philanthropist who founded the Royal Seamen's Hospital Society, and Letty Perceval (1784-1868), an English writer and political activist.
Another notable bearer of the name was Letty Lynton (1894-1976), an American silent film actress and dancer who appeared in several films during the 1920s. In more recent times, the name Letty has been carried by individuals like Letty Russell (born 1933), an American actress and singer, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born 1939), an American author and feminist advocate.
People
Letty + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Letty 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
Letty: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Letty?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,792 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Letty 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 122,763 US residents.
Is Letty a common name?
We classify Letty as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,454 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Letty most popular?
The single biggest year for Letty was 2016, when 163 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Letty is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Letty in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,487 people with the name Letty, or 1.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,056 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 Letty 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 Letty?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Letty appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,489 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Letty?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Letty is Hispanic at 44.3%. The next largest groups are White (42.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). 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 Letty most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Letty in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (1,544 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 Letty in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Letty a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Letty 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 Letty still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Letty 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 Letty 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 Letty?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.