Lee
Meaning
means 'meadow, clearing', from Old English leah
Famously borne by Lee Krasner, the Abstract Expressionist long overshadowed by her husband Jackson Pollock.
The story
Lee is Old English leah, a meadow or a clearing, one of those quiet landscape words that became a surname and then, in America, a first name for both sons and daughters. Its curve is among the strangest and most telling in the records: a nearly flat line, decade after decade, from the 1890s all the way to the 1980s, never spiking, never crashing, easing only slightly since. Part of the secret is the middle spot, where Lee has served for generations as the great American connector, smoothing the path between a first name and a last. Part is its simplicity: one syllable, one breath, at home in any era. Harper Lee gave it literary weight, and it echoes a proud surname across East Asia as well. Few names have asked for less attention and earned more staying power.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lee peaked in the 1890s and the 1980s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
730 people · the #10,299 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 250,000 · median age 42
Among people named Lee living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Lee
People given the name Lee in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Lee deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lee truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Lee fits with your family’s names and surname.
The meeting point
A special case: one side is a given name, the other is a surname that a quarter of a country writes the same way.
Lee · the English given name Lee, Old English lēah, "clearing"
李 · 李, "plum tree": a SURNAME on both the Chinese and Korean side, never a given name: 98.5% of South Koreans surnamed 이 write it "Lee" in their passports. A surname/given-name homograph, honestly labeled
Keep exploring
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