Lester

Meaning & origin●

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◐

Lester is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name160K records spelled Lester7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Nicaragua, Guatemala

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Léster, Lèštër, Lèstèr, Lestér

• a separate given name27K records spelled Lester2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Ecuador, India

  Also written Léster

• Hindi given name4.7K records spelled Lester3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Léster

• Polish given name4.4K records spelled Lester3 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Ľęšťër, Léster

73 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●

Lester 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, from Lestre, Manche, France; first attested William de Lestra 1084 GeldR (Somerset). Also a variant of LISTER; first attested Andrew le lestere 1327 Pinchbeck (Suffolk)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Old English; from Leicester, Roman site or fort

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• Transferred use of the surname, in origin a local name from the city of Leicester. The place name is recorded in the roth century as Ligora cester, representing a British name of obscure origin + the Old English term czster ‘Roman fort’.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, habitational name from Leicester, named in Old English from the tribal name Ligore (itself adapted from a British river name) + Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• English Leicester Meaning Roman

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

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●

• Lester Germerb. 1896USAmerican physicist (1896–1971)
• Lester B. Pearsonb. 1897CA14th Prime Minister of Canada, from 1963 to 1968 (1897–1972)
• Les Clarkb. 1907USnot in their usual nameAmerican animator (1907–1979)
• Benny Carterb. 1907USnot in their usual nameAmerican jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader (1907-2003)
• Lester Youngb. 1909USAmerican jazz saxophonist (1909–1959)
• Lester del Reyb. 1915USAmerican science fiction author (1915–1993)
• Les Paulb. 1915USnot in their usual nameAmerican jazz guitarist, country guitarist, songwriter and inventor (1915–2009)
• Lou Adlerb. 1933USnot in their usual nameAmerican record producer, manager and director
• Lester Birdb. 1938USPrime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (1938-2021)
• Johnny Nashb. 1940USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (1940–2020)

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 · 714 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Lester?

We estimate roughly 50 thousand people bear Lester (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Lester have the most bearers?

We estimate about 47 thousand people bear Lester in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled lester.

Where is Lester most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Lester is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 2.5 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Lester compared with other names?

In the United States, Lester is the 534th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Lester a male or female name?

Lester is a male 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 Lester mean?

Recorded meaning: Person from Leicester, Leicestershire; place-name meaning ‘Roman town of the Ligore tribe’.