Lee

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Li in CN China, FR France, ES Spain, Leila in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, GE Georgia, Lili in HU Hungary, PE Peru, MX Mexico and Лилия in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Lee is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name1.3M records spelled Lee4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Leé, Lée

• Spanish given name1.2M records spelled Lee16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Argentina, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Italian

  Also written Leé, Lëë, Leè, Lee', Lèe

• Chinese given name462K records spelled Lee4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Taiwan

  Also written Lee'

• French given name178K records spelled Lee47 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Lée, Léé, Leë, Lëe, Lëê

• Vietnamese given name178K records spelled Lee7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Vietnam, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom

  Also written Lêê, Lêe, Lëë, Lê-Ê, Lệệ

• Indonesian given name105K records spelled Lee15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines

  Also written Lee', 'Lee, Léé, Lëë, Léë

123 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Lee is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, O Laoidhigh, 'poetic'; of Tipperary, Galway, Cork and Limerick

  as a name·Irish family names

• In English, Common American surname used as an Anglicized spelling of Vietnamese Lê.

  as a name·Tên Họ Người Việt Nam

• ,2 Transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from any of numerous places so called from Old English /éah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. It is especially popular now in the United States, where it is sometimes chosen in honour of the great Confederate general Robert E. Lee (1807-70). It is also popular in Canada.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, habitational name from any of the many places named with Old English leah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, as for example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In English, topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land. Middle English lee, lea, from Old English lea, dative case (used after a preposition) of leah, which originally meant ‘wood’ or ‘glade’.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Robert Frostb. 1874USnot in their usual nameAmerican poet (1874–1963)
• Lee Grantb. 1927USAmerican actress
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassisb. 1929USnot in their usual nameFirst Lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963
• Tommy Lee Jonesb. 1946USAmerican actor and film director (born 1946)
• Robert Zemeckisb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican screenwriter, film producer and director (born 1952)
• Bryan Cranstonb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1956)
• Jeremy Rennerb. 1971USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, producer, and musician
• Alyson Hanniganb. 1974USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and television presenter (born 1974)
• Jamie Carragherb. 1978GBnot in their usual nameEnglish associiation football player and sportcaster
• Jordan Pickfordb. 1994GBnot in their usual nameEnglish footballer (born 1994)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,475 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Lee?

We estimate roughly 724 thousand people bear Lee (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Lee have the most bearers?

Lee is most frequently recorded in China, where it is most often spelled li.

How common is Lee compared with other names?

In China, Lee is the 5th most common surname of 134,008 surnames recorded there.

Is Lee a male or female name?

Lee is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Lee mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) ‘person who lives by a meadow or arable land’; (ii) ‘person from Lee/Lea/Leigh’, from places named by a wood or glade; (iii) from Irish Gaelic Ó Laoidhigh, ‘descendant of Laoidheach’, meaning ‘poe…