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Leigh, I would assume girl. Lee, boy.

I live and grew up in the South. While I have seen Lee used for females, for the most part, Lee is considered more male while Leigh is definitely considered female. That's my preference as well. BTW, I have several male family members with Lee in their names. No one named Leigh.

I would pronounce Leigh as "Lay," so to me, they're not the same name.

Leigh looks strictly feminine, while Lee looks unisex (and better). Anna Lee is nicer than Anna Leigh, but both sound like "anally".

Leigh looks more feminine to me, but Lee is also unisex in my mind.

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Anna Lee / Leigh is not great regardless of how it's spelled. It is very similar visually and in sound to the word "anally".

Leigh looks more feminine due to the Vivian Leigh association.

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Lee reminds me of American Revolution Major-General Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, Robert E Lee, martial artist Jet Lee, and actor Christopher Lee.

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They are both surnames and make fairly unisex middle names. As first names, Lee definitely is more masculine.

This message was edited 9/20/2019, 1:17 PM

I have LEIGH ancestors from England and the spelling of their surname was changed to LEE after coming early to America (pre-Revolution). As given names, I associate both spellings as unisex surname names. In my family, the LEE surname was handed down here and there as a middle name and, interestingly, to me, a father bearing middle name, Lee, in honor of those ancestors, handed it down to his daughter as Leigh, despite the honorees’ generations-ago spelling change. I assume they felt the Leigh spelling was more feminine and I would guess that’s most common.

Leigh looks more feminine. Lee is definitely more male, to me.

Leigh doesn't feel more feminine to me, however it does feel exclusively feminine while Lee can be unisex. But I don't like the Leigh spelling in the slightest and would prefer if Lee were always used instead (or whatever original spelling people replace with -leigh in names.)

Honestly, I think Lee should have stayed a surname, and Leigh is a pretentious respelling. The name is both irritating and boring at the same time. But if I had to choose, Lee for a boy and Leigh for a girl, simply because it’s what I’m used to.

Lee looks more masculine to me, perhaps because until very recently surnames tended to become male first names, not female. My experience bears that out: I was at school with three sisters whose ln was Lee, and another girl whose given names were Mabel Leigh but who went by Leigh.

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I'd expect Anna Lee to be, fn Anna, ln Lee, and Anna Leigh to have Anna as her fn, Leigh as her mn and something else, like Evans, as her ln.

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I think I remember reading somewhere once that in the UK Lee was predominantly male and Leigh was predominantly female, but that in the USA it was the other way around. No idea if that's correct.

Lee is unisex. I think Leigh as a second name (as in Anna Leigh) doesn't seem any more feminine than Lee.
The big difference between Lee and Leigh in my view, is that Leigh seems to be striving at seeming "classy," and Lee doesn't.
If it's the only name, Leigh does seem to slightly indicate feminine gender, but not absolutely.
I prefer Lee regardless of gender.

This message was edited 9/20/2019, 9:15 AM

I prefer Lee.

Lee doesn't look unisex to me, but instead wholly masculine. Leigh is much more feminine in my eyes. For me, it's more akin to the difference between Joe and Jo.