Lean
UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Lean has been given to 892 babies in the U.S. since 1916. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1985, with 27 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 75% girls, 25% boys all-time.
Babies named Lean, 2023
1 in 552,000
Lean over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Lean over time
In 2025, Lean went to 0% girls and 100% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Lean?
Lean had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2023
- 1 in 552,000
- 6 of 3,314,783 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 267,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2023
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 382,940 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Lean sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 382,940 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lean. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Leans were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Lean was born before 1984 — so the typical Lean is around 41 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1980s
- 28.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 24.6%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 648
- People you could plausibly meet
1980s — 28.9% of all recorded uses (194).
Is Lean rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 0%
- Peak was 1985 (27)
- Years since peak
- 40
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 38.3% average annual change
Spellings of Lean
Lean is not the most common spelling — Joan is, with 16.1% against Lean's 0.02%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Lean is used — girls
Across 1910–2025, Lean was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,143,770 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1California1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lean has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Where Lean is used — boys
Across 1910–2025, Lean was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,658,730 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lean has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Lean around the world
Where Lean ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- Ireland1972–2002#512in 2002
- France2001–2008#4,582in 2008
- Canada1991–1991#1,235in 1991
- South Australia1957–1971#724in 1971
Popularity data from Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Lean by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Lean
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Lean
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.