Lezli
A feminine variant of the Old English name "Leslie" meaning "from the gray fortress".
Name Census estimates that about 303 living Americans carry the first name Lezli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lezli today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lezli births was 1962 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lezli. 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
303
~ 1 in 1,131,202 Americans
Peak year
1962
15 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2010 SSA rank
#16,133
Tracked since 1953
Popularity
Lezli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lezli from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 113 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lezli 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 Lezli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lezlis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lezli
The name Lezli is a variant spelling of the English name Leslie, which is derived from an Anglo-French surname meaning "garden of lilies" or "from the gray fort". The name has its origins in the Norman language and culture, and its earliest recorded use dates back to the 12th century.
Leslie was originally a surname that was later adopted as a given name for both males and females. The earliest known bearer of the surname was a Norman nobleman named Lescelina, who lived in the 12th century. Over time, the name evolved into various spellings, including Lesly, Leseley, and Lezli.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lezli as a given name can be found in the 16th century, when a woman named Lezli Buchanan was mentioned in Scottish records from the year 1542. In the 17th century, a woman named Lezli Montgomerie was recorded in the parish registers of Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1649.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Lezli. In the 18th century, Lezli Pott was a British author and poet who lived from 1722 to 1804. In the 19th century, Lezli Cormack was a Scottish writer and journalist who was born in 1844 and died in 1912.
In the 20th century, Lezli Baskerville was an American actress and singer who was born in 1923 and passed away in 2003. Lezli Robyn was an Australian author and playwright who lived from 1939 to 2007. Additionally, Lezli Hardin was an American politician and activist who served as the first female mayor of Stillwater, Oklahoma, from 1982 to 1986.
While the name Lezli is not as common as its parent name Leslie, it has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly in English-speaking countries with ties to the Norman and Scottish heritage from which the name originated.
People
Lezli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lezli 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
Lezli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lezli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 303 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lezli 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 1,131,202 US residents.
Is Lezli a common name?
We classify Lezli as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.3% 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 Lezli most popular?
The single biggest year for Lezli was 1962, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lezli is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lezli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lezli 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.
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.