Gender | Unisex |
---|---|
Origin | |
Word/name | Great Britain |
Meaning | From the English word 'lee', meaning "shelter(ed), protection, haven, sanctuary". |
Region of origin | Great Britain |
Lee is a unisex given name from the English word 'lee'. Also used as a surname as one of derivative spellings often confused with the Old English surname and given name leah ("clearing; meadow"), which evolved to 'leigh' in Middle English, and present day 'lea' of the same meaning.
According to the Social Security Administration's popular baby name database, its popularity peaked in the United States in 1900 at rank 39 as a masculine name, and in 1955 at rank 182 as a feminine name. The name's popularity declined steadily in the second half of the 20th century, falling below rank 1000 by 1991 as a feminine name, and to 698 as of 2021 as a masculine name.[1] In the later 20th century, it also gained some popularity in the United Kingdom, peaking among the 20 most popular boys' names during the 1970s to 1980s, but it had fallen out of the top 100 by 2001.[2]
Lee is also a hypocoristic form of the given names Ashley, Beverly, Kimberley, Leona, and Leslie (all of which are also derived from English placenames containing -leah as a second element; with the possible exception of Leslie, which may be an anglicization of a Gaelic placename).
People
A–G
- Lee Allen (musician) (1927–1994), American tenor saxophonist
- Lee Andrews (1936–2016), American singer, leader of the doo-wop group Lee Andrews & the Hearts
- Lee Bowyer, English footballer
- Lee Boylan, English footballer
- Lee Brewster (1943-2000), American drag queen, transgender activist, and retailer
- Lee C. White, advisor to President Kennedy and Johnson
- Lee Camp (footballer), Northern Irish footballer
- Lee Cattermole, English footballer
- Lee Clark (footballer), English footballer and manager
- Lee Croft, English footballer
- Lee DeWyze, American singer and the winner of Season 9 of American Idol
- Lee Dickson, English rugby player
- Lee Dixon, English footballer
- Lee Dorrian, singer, Napalm Death, Cathedral
- R. Lee Ermey (1944–2018), American Marine drill instructor and actor
- Lee Evans, English comedian and actor
- Lee Feldman (businessman) (born 1967/68), American lawyer and businessman
- Lee Fierro (1929–2020), American actress
- Lee Gaze, guitarist for Lostprophets
- Lee Germon, New Zealand cricket player
- Lee Gibson (born 1991), Scottish footballer
- Lee Grant (born October 31, 1927), American actress and director
- Lee Grant (disambiguation)
- Lee Greenwood, American country music singer known for the song "God Bless the USA"
- Lee Grosscup (1936–2020), American football player and sportscaster
- Elbert Lee Guillory, Louisiana African-American Republican
H–M
- Lee Hall (artist) (1934–2017), American abstract expressionist painter, educator, writer, university president
- Lee Harding, Australian singer
- Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy
- Lee Hendrie, English footballer
- Lee Hughes, English footballer
- Lee Iacocca, chairman of Chrysler Corporation
- Lee J. Ames (1921–2011), American artist
- Lee J. Cobb, American actor
- Lee James (disambiguation)
- Lee Johnson (disambiguation)
- Lee Kerslake (1947–2020), English musician
- Lee Kiefer, American fencer, 2021 Olympic gold medalist
- Lee Konitz, American jazz alto saxophonist
- Lee Korzits, Israeli world champion windsurfer
- Lee Krasner (1908–1984), American abstract expressionist painter
- Lee Lorenz (1932-2022), American cartoonist
- Lee Mack, English comedian and actor
- Lee Majors, American actor
- Lee Boyd Malvo (born 1985), one of the two D.C. Snipers
- Lee Marshall, American announcer
- Lee Martin (disambiguation)
- Lee Marvin, American actor
- Lee Matthews (footballer) (born 1979), English football striker
- Lee Matthews (singer) (born 1988), Irish pop singer formerly known as Lee Mulhern, also known as Lee.M
- Lee Mavers, English musician
- Lee McConnell, Scottish track and field athlete
- Lee McCulloch, Scottish footballer
- Lee McKenzie, Scottish journalist and presenter
- Lee Meriwether, American actress
- Lee Miller (1907–1977), American fashion model, photographer, war photojournalist
- Lee Minto (born 1927), American women's health advocate and sex education activist
- Lee Morgan, an American hard bop trumpeter
- Lee Mossop, English rugby player
N–Z
- Lee Nailon, American NBA basketball player and 2007 Israeli Basketball Premier League MVP
- Lee Naylor (disambiguation)
- Lee Newton, American actress and comedian
- Lee Nguyen, American soccer player
- Lee Nicholls, English footballer
- Lee Norris, American actor
- Lee Novak, English footballer
- Lee O'Connor (disambiguation)
- Lee Ocran, Ghanaian politician
- Lee Olesky, American business executive
- Lee Oser, American novelist and literary critic
- Lee Oskar, Danish harmonica player
- Lee Pace, American actor
- Lee Peltier, English footballer
- Lee "Scratch" Perry, Jamaican musician
- Lee Probert, English football referee
- Lee Quiñones (born 1960 as George Quiñones), American graffiti artist
- Lee Ranaldo, guitarist (and occasional vocalist) for Sonic Youth
- Lee Remick, American actress
- Lee Richard, American baseball player
- Lee Greene Richards, American painter
- Lee Rigby, British soldier murdered by Islamists in Woolwich, London
- Lee Riley, American football player
- Lee Ritenour, American jazz guitarist
- Lee Roberts, American actor
- Lee Roberts (basketball), American basketball player
- Lee Robertson, Scottish footballer
- Lee Robinson (disambiguation)
- Lee Rogers (disambiguation)
- Lee Ryan, English singer
- Lee Sampson, Canadian football player
- Lee Sandales, set decorator
- Lee Sharpe, English footballer
- Lee Smith (disambiguation)
- Lee Snoots (1892-1968), American football player
- Lee Stensness, New Zealand rugby player
- Lee Stevens, American baseball player
- Lee Strobel, Christian apologist
- Lee Tamahori, New Zealand director
- Lee Tergesen, American actor
- Lee Trevino, American golfer
- Chrystelle Lee Trump Bond (1938–2020), American dancer, choreographer, and dance historian
- Lee Trundle, English footballer
- Lee Unkrich, American director, editor, screenwriter and animator
- Lee Van Cleef, American actor
- Lee Ving, guitarist and singer of the American hardcore punk band Fear
- Lee Westwood, English golfer
- Lee Wiley, American jazz singer from the big band era
- Lee Williamson, Jamaican footballer
- Lee Williamson (American football), American football player
- Lee Winter, Australian novelist
- Lee Zeldin (born 1980), Republican United States Congressman, former New York state senator
People called Leee
Some people spell their name with three Es instead of two:
- Leee Black Childers (born Lee Black Childers; 1945–2014), American avant-garde photographer and music manager
- Leee John (born John Leslie McGregor; 1957), British pop musician
Fictional characters
- Lee, a character in 1993 action/martial arts film Showdown
- Lee, a character in the 1997 American comedy film Fathers' Day
- Lee, played by Lee Mack in his sitcom Not Going Out
- Lee, a character played by actor JR Reed in association with the comedy rock band Tenacious D
- Lee Adama, fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica
- Lee Brackett, a character in the horror film Halloween
- L For Leeeeee x, a bear played by Scottish YouTuber Lee Carson on stampylonghead's channel until 2015
- Lee Chaolan, character in the Tekken series
- Lee Everett, the protagonist in the 2012 video game The Walking Dead
- Lee Harris, a character in the television series American Horror Story: Roanoke
- Lee Jordan, a character in the Harry Potter series
- Lee Kanker, oldest of the Kanker sisters on Ed, Edd n Eddy
- Lee McDermott, a character in Desperate Housewives
- Lee Montgomery, a character in the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof
- Lee, a video games character appear in first Street Fighter
- Lee Ping, the protagonist of the television series Detentionaire
- Lee Scoresby, a character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
- Lee Sin, the Blind Monk, a playable champion character in the action real-time strategy video game League of Legends
Lee a character from Woody Allen's 1986 movie "Hannah and Her Sisters"
References
See also
- List of people with surname Lee
- Lee (Korean surname)
- Leigh (disambiguation)
- Lea (disambiguation)
- Leah (name)
- Leeland (given name)