Leh

surname · Latin script

Meaning: from Genet. lewes, MHG 'hill'; also from lewer, Schwab

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ˈɫɛ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Leh is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Malaysia than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • MYMalaysia≈1 in 24K(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 553K
  • SGSingapore≈1 in 112K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Malaysia (inferred from the name graph)

≈1,400 people, est.

Sources
175 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 24K (inferred from the name graph)

Malaysia, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Derivation of Leh: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Leh
  1. Middle Englishgenet(inferred from the name graph)via Genet
  2. Anglo-Normangenette(inferred from the name graph)via Genet

Steps marked ◐ come from the entry for the form named above them, not from this name's own sources.

from Genet. lewes, MHG 'hill'; also from lewer, Schwab. laih

Sources 1

  • Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Leh counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Leh is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
MY Malaysia≈1,400 est.≈1 in 24K—Leh36
US United States6011 in 553K601Leh175
PH Philippines≈170 est.≈1 in 645K—Leh26
GB United Kingdom≈140 est.≈1 in 480K—Leh30
FR France≈130 est.≈1 in 535K5—1
SG Singapore≈56 est.≈1 in 112K—Leh24
IE Ireland≈26 est.≈1 in 200K—Leh2
NO Norway161 in 342K16—2
HR Croatia151 in 282K16——

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form); DZS — Učestalost prezimena (Popis 2021); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Leh is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Malay surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United States

    Languages: Malay, Indonesian

    Also written Léh

  • French surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Le-H

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Leḥ

45 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Leh is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • perhaps an altered spelling of Loh, a habitational name from any of numerous places named Loh or Lohe. This name is found chiefly in PA.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In Slovenian, genitive dual/plural of leha

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Czech, lying position

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In quc, corn tortilla

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Albanian, to bark, yap

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1940195019601970Michael Leh, b. 1943Dennis Leh, b. 1946Almut Leh, b. 1961

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Colleague,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 16 sources across 10 countries.

Reference works 2

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Leh come from?
from Genet. lewes, MHG 'hill'; also from lewer, Schwab. laih Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
How do you pronounce Leh?
A machine transcription gives /ˈɫɛ/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Leh mean?
Recorded meaning: from Genet. lewes, MHG 'hill'; also from lewer, Schwab.
In which country does Leh have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.4 thousand people named Leh in Malaysia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled leh.
How common is the name Leh?
In the United States, the national register counted 601 people named Leh in 2010, about 1 in 553 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Leh?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/leh

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Leh”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Leh parses inside a full name →