Lee (English given name)
Lee | |
---|---|
Gender | Mainly Male (with some Female) |
Origin | |
Word/name | after a surname |
Meaning | Clearing; Meadow |
Region of origin | United States |
Lee is a given name derived from the English surname Lee (which is ultimately from a placename derived from Old English leah "clearing; meadow"). As the surname of Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), the name became popular in the American South after the Civil War, its popularity peaking 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 666 as of 2012 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 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
In art:
- Lee Quiñones (born George Quiñones), American graffiti artist
- Lee James
In music:
- Lee Ving, Guitarist and singer of the American hardcore punk band FEAR
- Lee DeWyze, American singer and the winner of Season 9 of American Idol
- Lee Gaze, guitarist for Lost Prophets
- Lee Greenwood, American country music singer known for the song "God Bless the USA"
- Lee Harding, Australian singer
- Lee Konitz, American jazz alto saxophonist
- Lee Mavers, English musician
- Lee Morgan, an American hard bop trumpeter
- Lee Mulhern, Irish pop singer also known as Lee.M
- Lee Ranaldo, guitarist (and occasional vocalist) for Sonic Youth
- Lee Ryan, English singer
- Lee Scratch Perry, Jamaican musician
- Lee Wiley, American jazz singer from the big band era
- Lee Dorrian, singer, Napalm Death, Cathedral
In film and television:
- Lee Grant, American television/film actress
- Lee McKenzie, Scottish television reporter
- Lee Majors, American actor
- Lee Marshall, Canadian television announcer
- Lee Marvin, American actor
- Lee Meriwether, American actress who was Miss America 1955
- Lee Pace, American actor
- Lee Remick, American actress in film and television
- Lee Tamahori, New Zealand director
- Lee Tergesen, American actor
- Lee Unkrich, American director
- Lee Van Cleef, American actor
- Lee Mack, English comedian and actor
In politics:
- Elbert Lee Guillory, Louisiana African-American Republican
- Lee C. White, advisor to President Kennedy and Johnson
In sports:
- Lee Bowyer, English professional footballer
- Lee Boylan, English professional footballer
- Lee Camp, Northern Irish professional footballer
- Lee Clark, English professional footballer and manager
- Lee Croft, English professional footballer
- Lee Dickson, English professional rugby union player
- Lee Dixon, English professional footballer
- Lee Grant, English professional footballer
- Lee Hendrie, English professional footballer
- Lee Hughes, English professional footballer
- Lee Johnson, English professional footballer
- Lee McConnell, Scottish track and field athlete
- Lee McCulloch, Scottish professional footballer
- Lee Mossop, English Rugby League player
- Lee Naylor, English professional footballer
- Lee Probert, English professional football referee
- Lee Martin, English professional footballer
- Lee Smith, American professional baseball pitcher
- Lee Sharpe, English former professional footballer
- Lee Stevens, American professional baseballer
- Lee Trevino, American professional golfer
- Lee Trundle, English professional footballer
- Lee Westwood, English professional golfer
- Lee Williamson, Jamaican professional footballer
- Lee Williamson (American football), American football player
- Lee Peltier, English professional footballer
- Lee Cattermole, English professional footballer
In religion:
- Lee Strobel, Christian apologist
In crime:
- Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy
- Lee Rigby, British soldier murdered by Islamists in Woolwich, London
In business:
- Lido "Lee" Iacocca, former chairman of Chrysler Corporation
In fictional characters:
- Lee, a character played by Jason Reed in association with the comedy rock band Tenacious D
- Lee Adama, fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica
- Lee Chaolan, character in the Tekken series
- Lee Jordan (Harry Potter), a character in the Harry Potter series
- Lee McDermott, played by Kevin Rahm in Desperate Housewives
- Lee Scoresby, fictional character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
- Lee Brackett, a character in John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978) and Rob Zombie's remake of the film.
- Lee, played by Lee Mack in his sitcom Not Going Out
- Lee Everett, the protagonist in the 2012 video game The Walking Dead
- Lee Ping, the Korean-Canadian protagonist of the television series Detentionaire
- Lee Sin, the Blind Monk, a playable champion character in the action real-time strategy video game League of Legends
People called Leee
Some people spell their name with three Es instead of two:
- Leee Black Childers (1945–2014) American avant-garde photographer and music manager
- Leee John (b. John Leslie McGregor, 1957) British pop musician