How rare is the name Lester?

47,571 people in the United States have the first name Lester, about 1 in 6,349. It ranks #936 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

LESTER

#936

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
47,571
About
1 in 6,349
This common or more
69.1%
Who bears it

Of the 47,571 people named Lester, 61.9% reported their origin as White, 21.1% as Black and 10.2% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are male (99.5%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Lester peaked in 1918, when 3,265 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1918
Births that year
3,265
In 2025*
103 ▼97%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 132,047 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Lester by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1910s, when it ranked #145. The largest share of babies named Lester, 36.5%, were born between 1901 and 1927, the Greatest Generation's birth years.

1880s#2491,451
1890s#2252,762
1900s#2014,465
1910s#14521,732
1920s#17826,842
1930s#25017,164
1940s#29417,230
1950s#36716,715
1960s#5289,835
1970s#7615,156
1980s#1,0143,587
1990s#1,6632,080
2000s#2,6611,373
2010s#3,4441,045
2020s#3,524610
Before 19013.5%
Greatest Generation 1901–2736.5%
Silent Generation 1928–4523.9%
Baby boom 1946–6422.6%
Generation X 1965–807.3%
Millennials 1981–963.6%
Generation Z 1997–121.6%
2013 and later1%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Lester is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Lester has been most common in South Dakota (2.4×), North Dakota (2.2×), and Louisiana (1.9×), and least common in Arizona (0.32×).

118,624 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Lester

#934 Clyde · 47,655#935 Emilia · 47,586#937 Mila · 47,530#938 Dianna · 47,528

Spelled almost the same

2 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Lester, most common first.

#28,137 Lesther · 321#47,857 Lexter · 135

Also a last name

As a last name, Lester ranks #789 of 156,621, with 42,692 people. See Lester as a last name

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