How popular is the baby name Lee in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Lee.

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Popularity of the baby name Lee


Posts that mention the name Lee

Where did the baby name Trevino come from in 1969?

Professional golfer Lee Trevino
Lee Trevino

The surname-name Trevino first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1969. It reached peak usage two years later:

  • 1972: 12 baby boys named Trevino
  • 1971: 17 baby boys named Trevino [peak]
  • 1970: 5 baby boys named Trevino
  • 1969: 5 baby boys named Trevino [debut]
  • 1968: unlisted
  • 1967: unlisted

Where did the name come from?

Mexican-American professional golfer Lee Trevino, who was born in Texas in the late 1930s.

In the summer of 1968, Trevino won the U.S. Open. He finished five under par — four strokes ahead of defending champion Jack Nicklaus, who placed second.

In the summer of 1971, Trevino not only won the U.S. Open again, but also won the Canadian Open and the British Open — becoming the first golfer to win these three particular tournaments in the same year. (Tiger Woods would repeat the feat in 2000.) Trevino was named PGA Player of the Year, Associated Press Athlete of the Year, and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

The Spanish surname Trevino can be traced back to either of two locations in northern Spain called Treviño. What are your thoughts on Trevino as a first name?

Sources:

  • Lee Trevino – Wikipedia
  • Hanks, Patrick, Simon Lenarcic and Peter McClure. (Eds.) Dictionary of American Family Names. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
  • SSA

Image: Clipping from the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine (19 Aug. 1974)

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2024

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

Last year, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar welcomed 331 babies — 148 baby girls and 183 baby boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia for girls and Noah/Thomas (tie) for boys.

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 5 baby girls
  2. Emilia, 4
  3. Matilda and Zara, 3 each (tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah and Thomas, 5 baby boys each (tie)
  2. Luca and Sebastian, 4 each (tie)
  3. Leon, Liam, Oliver, Ryan, Theo, and Tommy, 3 each (6-way tie)

The name Jamie was also given to three babies, but my source didn’t include much information on gender, so I don’t know if these three babies were boys, girls, or a mix of both.

The 36 names given to two babies each were Addison, Alexander, Annabelle, Arabella, Ariana, Axel, Celine, Charles, Emily, Emma, Enzo, Evan, George, Hugo, Jacob, Jesse, Julia, Kai, Kylian, Leo, Lucia, Luna, Maisie, Mia, Michael, Mila, Nicolas, Riley, Robyn, Romeo, Romy, Salma, Sofia, Stella, Thiago, and Zack.

And the 200+ names bestowed just once in Gibraltar last year were…

Adah, Adam, Adonis, Aiden, Aidon, Ajay, Alba, Albert, Aleia, Alesia, Alessandro, Alice, Alistair, Amara, Amber, Amelia, Amina, Amine, Amoura, Ana, Anas, Anaya, Andrew, Antonio, Archie, Aria, Arianna, Arley, Arlo, Arthur, Ava, Aya, Ayla, Azaria, Bella, Billy, Blake, Bodhi, Brenda, Caleb, Callie, Camden, Cara, Catharine, Cecilia, Charlie, Charlotte, Christian, Cleo, Connor, Cora, Danah, Daniella, Darcie, Darcy, Delilah, Duyna, Dylan, Edward, Eladio, Elena, Elia, Elian, Elias, Ella, Elliot, Ellis, Elowyn, Elton, Eric, Esmae, Esteban, Everleigh, Evie, Ezra, Frankie, Freya, Furkan, Gabriella, Geremiah, Gia, Gigi, Giorgia, Giorgio, Grace, Gracie, Hadley, Halo, Hannah, Haroun, Harper, Harry, Haven, Henry, Hudson, Ian, Inaaya, Inaya, Isabella, Isadora, Isla, Islam, Ivy, Jack, Jae, Jake, James, Jason, Javier, Jax, Jay, Jaylan, Joylisa, Jude, Jules, Kaine, Kallie, Katie, Kenzie, Kenzo, Khylo, Koby, Kody, Lara, Laurie, Lee, Lewis, Lilliana, Liya, Lorena, Louis, Luciano, Luke, Maeve, Manxin, Marcel, Martin, Mason, Matthew, Max, Milan, Millie, Mollie, Moshe, Mya, Myla, Naia, Naiomi, Naira, Nariah, Nellie, Niall, Nicola, Nylah, Osayd, Peter, Posie, Rachel, Rafaella, Ralfs, Ramy, Rayan, Reign, Reuven, Rian, Rina, Rio, Roan, Robbie, Robert, Roman, Rosa, Rose, Rotem, Ruairi, Ruben, Ruhe, Rupert, Sarah, Scarlett, Sean, Seth, Shashana, Shivika, Sophia, Sophie, Spencer, Sunny, Sykes, Talia, Tassim, Theodore, Tiana, Timothy, Tobias, Tristan, Tyler, Valentina, Victor, Yaakov, Zachary, Zayd, Zoe, Zyna, Zyon

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2023 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Source: “Thomas, Noah & Olivia the most popular baby names in 2024.” GBC News 25 Mar. 2025.

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)

Top baby names in Berkeley (California), 2023-2024

Flag of California
Flag of California

The digital newspaper Berkeleyside recently published an article about real-life baby names inspired by various locations within (or near) the California city of Berkeley. The article mentioned the following names:

  • Ada (for Ada Street)
  • Addison (for Addison Street)
  • Adeline (for Adeline Street)
  • Ashby (for Ashby Avenue)
  • Bay (for San Francisco Bay)
  • Berkeley
  • Cedar (for Cedar Street)
  • Edith (for Edith Street)
  • Ellis (for Ellis Street)
  • Linden (for Linden Avenue)
  • Parker (for Parker Street)
  • Rose (for Rose Street)
  • Sibley (for Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, in Oakland)
  • Tilden (for Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park)

Equally interesting, though, was the inclusion of Berkeley’s top ten baby names overall “between 2023 and 2024” (which I’m assuming means 2023 and 2024 combined), according to data from the City of Berkeley’s Office of Vital Statistics. The names were ordered alphabetically:

  • Angel
  • Dylan
  • Julian
  • Liam
  • Luna
  • Mateo
  • Mia
  • Noah
  • Oliver
  • Zoe

I’ve never posted rankings for the city of Berkeley before, but I regularly post rankings for the nearby county of Sonoma — here’s 2023, and here’s 2024.

Source: Furio, Joanne. “Ashby! Tilden! Ada Rose! Berkeley’s babies are often named after local streets and parks.” Berkeleyside 9 Apr. 2025.

Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)

What gave the baby name Brendalee a boost in 1960?

Brenda Lee's self-titled studio album (1960)
Brenda Lee album

From 1948 to 1964, Brenda was one of the top 20 girl names in the United States. So it makes sense that, during this period, names like Brendalyn, Brendalee, and Labrenda started seeing enough usage to debut in the U.S. baby name data. (The SSA’s dataset only includes names given to at least five babies per gender, per year.)

But it doesn’t explain why the combo Brendalee saw stronger-than-expected usage in the early 1960s specifically:

  • 1964: 14 baby girls named Brendalee
  • 1963: 22 baby girls named Brendalee
  • 1962: 12 baby girls named Brendalee
  • 1961: 20 baby girls named Brendalee
  • 1960: 24 baby girls named Brendalee (peak usage)
  • 1959: 10 baby girls named Brendalee
  • 1958: 6 baby girls named Brendalee

What accounts for this usage?

Pint-sized pop singer Brenda Lee (born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Georgia in 1944).

Brenda Lee was discovered by country singer Red Foley in early 1955, when she was just eleven. Soon after that, her first singles started coming out.

She went on to have a recording career that lasted multiple decades. More than a dozen of her singles ended up reaching the U.S. top 10 — most of them during the first half of the 1960s.

Her biggest hit was the song “I’m Sorry,” which peaked at #1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1960, when she was fifteen.

Here’s what it sounds like:

(Brenda finally scored a second #1 hit in late 2023, when her rockabilly holiday song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” rose to the top of the charts thanks to a cute music video created to celebrate the song’s 65th anniversary.)

What are your thoughts on the compound name Brenda Lee?

Sources: