Les

Where Les comes from

The dictionaries list Les as a given name — a diminutive of the male given names Lester and Leslie — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

Along the way
  1. 1900
    First appearance
    #1,310 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1915
    Les Paul born
    American jazz guitarist, country guitarist, songwriter and inventor
  3. 1961
    Peak, #586
    182 babies named Les — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1966
    Les Ferdinand born
    English association football player
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #800.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given names Lester and Leslie.
  • A diminutive of the female given name Leslie.
Namesakes
  • Les Paul · American jazz guitarist, country guitarist, songwriter and inventor, 1915–2009
  • Les Ferdinand · English association football player, born 1966
  • Les Kurbas · Ukrainian and Soviet actor, theatre director, film director (1887—1937), 1887–1937
  • Les Aspin · American politician, 1938–1995
  • Les Murray · Australian poet and critic, 1938–2019

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.