Lester
Lester is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 109 births. Its best rank was 52nd, in 1906.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1090.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19183,229 births
- Best rank
- #52in 1906
- Since 1880
- 131,938people given the name
The story in the numbers
130,579 boys have been named Lester in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 3,229 births — 0.32% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 109 births in 2024, against 3,229 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1934, and the 1920s alone account for 20%. It has spent 119 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 46 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,359 girls have also been given it, 1.0% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Lester | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,440 | |
| 1890s | 2,702 | |
| 1900s | 4,361 | |
| 1910s | 21,509 | |
| 1920s | 26,513 | |
| 1930s | 16,984 | |
| 1940s | 17,081 | |
| 1950s | 16,570 | |
| 1960s | 9,740 | |
| 1970s | 5,110 | |
| 1980s | 3,571 | |
| 1990s | 2,080 | |
| 2000s | 1,371 | |
| 2010s | 1,044 | |
| 2020s | 503 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Lester was the 62nd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1918 were John, William, James, Robert and Charles. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Lester
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Herschelpeak 1921
- Virgilpeak 1921
- Garnettpeak 1920
- Cecilpeak 1920
- Morrispeak 1918
- Erwinpeak 1918
- Ottispeak 1920
- Basilpeak 1924
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.