Leni
Leni was given to 197 girls in 2025, #1,179 among girls’ names; 1,962 Americans have been recorded with it since 1938 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,860 Americans named Leni and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Leni by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Leni mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Leni is “a diminutive of the female given names Helene and Magdalene”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Leni?
#1,179 among girls’ names, 2025
Leni rose from #3,813 in 2015 to #1,179 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.02 to 0.12 per 1,000.
208 babies in 2023, the peak
Leni peaked in 2023, when 208 babies were given it (201 girls, #1,197 among girls’ names). The 197 births of 2025 are 95% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 197 | #1,179 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 187 | #1,246 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 201 | #1,197 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 141 | #1,530 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 117 | #1,755 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 99 | #1,940 | 0.06 |
| 2019 | 103 | #1,925 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 81 | #2,263 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 55 | #2,998 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 52 | #3,166 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 40 | #3,813 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 39 | #3,886 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 32 | #4,495 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 36 | #4,181 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 34 | #4,312 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 28 | #5,042 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 33 | #4,540 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 23 | #6,050 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 18 | #7,275 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 26 | #5,315 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 11 | #9,842 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 6 | #15,249 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,948 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,341 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 5 | #12,957 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #12,364 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,678 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,333 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,657 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,552 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,190 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,623 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,132 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,595 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,252 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,735 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,449 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #7,076 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,514 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,629 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,112 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 14 | #3,537 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,455 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,838 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,790 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,077 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 10 | #4,047 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 12 | #3,476 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,421 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,021 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 13 | #3,025 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 11 | #3,334 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 18 | #2,376 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 18 | #2,381 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 14 | #2,837 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 12 | #2,963 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,844 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 15 | #2,346 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 11 | #2,962 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 14 | #2,481 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 11 | #2,760 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,372 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,605 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,105 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Leni a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,962 Americans recorded as Leni, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 197 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Leni: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Leni, and how old are they?
1,860 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,962 Americans ever recorded as Leni. The median Leni alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 1,545 people named Leni (1,391 women and girls, 154 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 969 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 39 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 147 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 62 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 34 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 223 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,350 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Leni born?
The states with the most babies named Leni are California, New York and North Carolina, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 17 | #1,390 | 0.6× |
| New York | 14 | #1,061 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 12 | #812 | 0.4× |
| Illinois | 9 | #974 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #973 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 8 | #1,627 | 0.3× |
| Missouri | 8 | #694 | 0.3× |
| Minnesota | 7 | #697 | 2.1× |
| Michigan | 7 | #1,024 | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 7 | #994 | 0.4× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Leni with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 291,879 babies since 1880, Leni is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 197 of their 2,535 babies (7.8%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Leni
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Leni and names like it
- Compare Leni and LenaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sLeni peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Leni since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Leni: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Leni.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Leni alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.