Lesley
"lesley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Lesley” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #21,847. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #21,847
- frequency rank, English
- 16,425
- “L” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Scottish surname.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Lesley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #21,847 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Lesley” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around Lesley, aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #21,847 among 16,425 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Lesley, with forms such as "elsley", "lelsey", and "lesely". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "lisle", "lesser", "Leslie", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a placename in Aberdeenshire, originally Lesslyn, Scottish Gaelic lios cuileann (“garden of hollies”). The correct English form is Lesley, spelled L-E-S-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A Scottish surname.
- 2A female given name transferred from the surname, used since the 18th century. Popular in the U.K. in the mid-20th century.
- 3A male given name transferred from the surname.
Etymology
From a placename in Aberdeenshire, originally Lesslyn, Scottish Gaelic lios cuileann (“garden of hollies”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- elsley
- lelsey
- lesely
- lesleyy
- leslley
- leslye
- lessley
- llesley
- lseley
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Lesley - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Lesley"?
What does "Lesley" mean?
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Using “Lesley”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-E-S-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “lisle” - see the side-by-side comparison. Lesley vs lisle
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.