Lesly is a spelling of Leslie, a Scottish surname taken from a place in Aberdeenshire and usually explained from the Gaelic leas celyn, "garden of hollies". The shorter spelling is especially popular with Spanish-speaking families in the United States, where it is pronounced with a clear final y. Lesly ranked number 389 in 2000, peaked at number 364 in 2003 and left the top 1000 in the 2010s; it stands at number 1448 in 2025.