NameYear

Mostly girls · peaked in 1969

Leigh name popularity since 1925

44,749 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Leigh (89.7% girls, 10.3% boys). Half of them were born in 1972 or earlier, so the typical Leigh is about 54 years old in 2026. Leigh peaked in 1969 as the #201 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925
44,749
Named Leigh, 1925–2025
Peak year
1969
#201 for girls that year
Typical age
About 54
Median birth year 1972
In 2025
Not top 1,000
#4,504 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys
89.7% girls
40,139 girls · 4,610 boys
Most popular in
Alabama
2.73× its national share

Peak year is the year Leigh made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Leigh births per year, 1925–2025

Babies named Leigh per year, 1925–2025

1969 was the biggest year for Leigh both by count and as a share of all babies.

  • Fastest rise: Between 1951 and 1956, Leigh became 3× more common, from 1 in 9,790 baby girls to 1 in 3,290.
  • Steepest fall: Between 1993 and 1998, its share of baby girls fell by 60%, from 1 in 4,860 to 1 in 12,000.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Leigh's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Leigh.

Decade by decade

Babies named Leigh in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade GirlsBoys Rank
1925–29 47194 –
1930s 127410 #3,051
1940s 791799 #876
1950s 4,081943 #412
1960s 10,705768 #308
1970s 11,411600 #228
1980s 8,457591 #312
1990s 2,986171 #852
2000s 76869 #2,694
2010s 51343 #3,416
2020–25 25322 #4,504

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

44.2% of babies named Leigh from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Gen X years (1965–1980). The full split by generation:

Leigh by generation Greatest Generation born 1925–27 0.3% Silent Generation born 1928–45 2.9% Baby Boomers born 1946–64 24.3% Gen X born 1965–80 44.2% Millennials born 1981–96 23.3% Gen Z born 1997–2012 3.4% Gen Alpha born 2013–25 1.5%

Where Leigh is most popular

The index compares Leigh's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Leigh.

StateIndexBabies
Alabama2.73×1,872
Tennessee2.09×1,707
Mississippi2.03×955
North Carolina1.96×2,152
Kentucky1.93×1,249

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Leigh's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Leigh.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Leigh (1969).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data