Fun Facts About the Name Legacy
- More than 8 thousand babies named Legacy: U.S. records list 8,476 babies given the name Legacy from 1880 through 2025. Of these, 2,706 boys received the name Legacy - about 1 boy for every 2 girls.
What Does the Name Legacy Mean?
Legacy is an English word name meaning "a bequest" or "something handed down from one generation to the next." It is taken directly from the English noun legacy, which Middle English borrowed from Old French legacie. That form goes back to Medieval Latin legatia, built on Latin legare, "to bequeath" or "to send as a deputy." Latin legare held both ideas at once: a legatum was a gift left in a will, while a legatus was a deputy or ambassador, the source of the English word legate.
The older English sense of legacy was the office or mission of a legate, a meaning that has since fallen out of use. The modern sense - a gift left by will, and by extension anything inherited from those who came before - is the one the given name draws on. The name is a plain use of the common noun, not a translation of a foreign name or a shortened form of one.
Legacy Name History & Origins
Legacy is a vocabulary name: an existing English word adopted whole as a personal name, with its spelling and form left unchanged. This is the same pattern seen in earlier English word names such as Grace and Hope, and in more recent ones such as Destiny and Trinity. The word has a long documentary history in English; legacie appears in Middle English with the sense of a bequest, and the sense of a legate's commission was current alongside it.
Latin legare, the root behind all of these, also produced legate, legation, and legator - words that preserve the two linked ideas of sending an agent and leaving something by will. As a personal name, Legacy is a modern English-speaking usage, given to both boys and girls, and it stands at the end of that word history rather than within the older stock of inherited personal names.
How Popular is the Name Legacy?
Legacy recorded its highest annual U.S. birth count in 2021. Its best rank was #434 in 2021.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #662 | 429 | 0.0267% |
| 2024 | #610 | 491 | 0.0304% |
| 2023 | #541 | 559 | 0.0349% |
| 2022 | #484 | 655 | 0.0400% |
| 2021 | #434 | 725 | 0.0442% |
| 2020 | #500 | 610 | 0.0378% |
| 2019 | #616 | 491 | 0.0293% |
| 2018 | #789 | 347 | 0.0204% |
| 2017 | #944 | 280 | 0.0162% |
| 2016 | #1,043 | 254 | 0.0143% |
| 2015 | #1,420 | 163 | 0.0091% |
| 2014 | #1,899 | 106 | 0.0059% |
| 2013 | #2,320 | 80 | 0.0046% |
| 2012 | #2,417 | 77 | 0.0044% |
| 2011 | #3,078 | 55 | 0.0031% |
| 2010 | #2,601 | 70 | 0.0039% |
| 2009 | #4,153 | 37 | 0.0020% |
| 2008 | #4,411 | 35 | 0.0019% |
| 2007 | #5,038 | 29 | 0.0015% |
| 2006 | #5,836 | 23 | 0.0012% |
| 2005 | #5,926 | 21 | 0.0011% |
| 2004 | #5,671 | 22 | 0.0012% |
| 2003 | #4,750 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 2002 | #4,569 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 2001 | #3,672 | 36 | 0.0020% |
| 2000 | #5,602 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 1999 | #3,682 | 33 | 0.0019% |
| 1998 | #5,265 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 1997 | #7,545 | 12 | 0.0007% |
| 1996 | #5,423 | 18 | 0.0010% |
| 1995 | #10,109 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 1994 | #8,506 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #957 | 244 | 0.0143% |
| 2024 | #954 | 237 | 0.0138% |
| 2023 | #832 | 295 | 0.0173% |
| 2022 | #734 | 353 | 0.0202% |
| 2021 | #709 | 370 | 0.0212% |
| 2020 | #761 | 316 | 0.0183% |
| 2019 | #828 | 273 | 0.0152% |
| 2018 | #1,082 | 183 | 0.0101% |
| 2017 | #1,451 | 118 | 0.0064% |
| 2016 | #1,911 | 77 | 0.0041% |
| 2015 | #2,266 | 59 | 0.0031% |
| 2014 | #3,278 | 34 | 0.0018% |
| 2013 | #3,463 | 31 | 0.0016% |
| 2012 | #3,675 | 29 | 0.0015% |
| 2011 | #4,446 | 22 | 0.0012% |
| 2010 | #3,213 | 35 | 0.0018% |
| 2009 | #5,455 | 17 | 0.0009% |
| 2008 | #9,520 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 2002 | #11,753 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Legacy Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You always bring to completion anything you start. You are generous but like to see returns from your giving. You have an executive ability, you are a leader. You are moral, balanced, honest and intellectual, and you may attain spirituality. You are wise and practical with an appreciation of beauty. You always think before you act. You have an eventful, exciting life. You are versatile and have the ability to learn easily.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Legacy's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Legacy's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.