Lee

Where Lee comes from

From Old English lēa, the dative case of lēah (“meadow”), originally to denote someone who lived near a meadow.
— Wiktionary's entry for Lee
  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #43 among boys — 361 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1900
    Peak, #39
    675 babies named Lee — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1924
    Lee Marvin born
    American actor
  4. 1939
    Lee Harvey Oswald born
    American former marine who assassinated John F. Kennedy
  5. 2019
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #783.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name.
  • A male given name.
  • A female given name.
  • A nickname for various given names with the first syllable as Lee; Clipping of Leo, Leroy.
Namesakes
  • Lee Harvey Oswald · American former marine who assassinated John F. Kennedy, 1939–1963
  • Lee Marvin · American actor, 1924–1987
  • Lee Van Cleef · American actor, 1925–1989
  • Lee de Forest · American inventor, 1873–1961

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.