Lennie

Lennie for boys#9378 US

The spelling Lenny is much preferred in the States, and it is also favorite of the two in France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK itself.

While many classrooms have now dropped Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men from the curriculum, associations linger and some may find Lenny is the better option for now.

Lennie for girls#2557 US

An "old-man" nickname for girls, Lennie could feel as fresh as Billie, Scottie, and Stevie — and if the 100 Year Rule is anything to go by, it may well be time for it to come back round, having been a US favorite in the early 20th-century. Cutesy but solid, it is sometimes used as a feminine form of Leonard, however, other sources include Eleanor, Ellen, Helen, Helena, Magdalena, Lennon, Lennox, and Gwendolen.

If Lennie feels too Of Mice and Men for you, there's the pan-European Leni to consider too — identical in sound but lighter and fresher in appearance. In fact, it's a charting option in Austria, Germany, and England and Wales.

Lennie ranked just outside the England and Wales Top 1000 in a recent year, given to 27 girls (making it as popular as Cerys, Dotty, Marceline, and Saffron in the same year), while in the US it was chosen for 69 girls — the largest number of female Lennies born in a single year since the 1920s.