9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Lennon

Pronunciation
[Le-nnon]
Gender
Male
Meaning
Little Cloak
Origin
Gaelic
Irish for Dear One.

About the Name Lennon

Lennon is a name of Gaelic origin, traditionally understood to mean "little cloak," derived from an Irish surname. That gentle, almost protective image — a small cloak — gives it a soft warmth, while its surname structure lends it the crisp, modern feel that has made last-names-as-first-names so popular with contemporary parents. It belongs to a wider movement of Irish surnames embraced as fresh, heritage-rich given names that feel both rooted and new.

Much of Lennon's appeal is its blend of Irish heritage and a sound that feels both familiar and current. It carries an easy, two-syllable rhythm and a strong cultural resonance, and it works gracefully for any child, which has helped it move comfortably across the lines parents once drew between boys' and girls' names. That flexibility, paired with its musical associations, has kept it firmly in fashion.

Lennon first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2008, rose to its best rank of #596 in 2016, and has held a steady place in the rankings since, appearing at #784 in 2024 after standing at #755 in 2023 and #663 in 2022. In total it has been given to about 5,693 boys. With its Gaelic roots and modern, surname-style polish, Lennon sits firmly among the current generation of stylish, heritage-flavored choices that feel at once rooted and fresh.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Lennon

276
Gaelic baby names in our dictionary
210
Gaelic male names
221
6-letter L-names in our dictionary
389
L-male names total
2008–2025
years of US SSA records (18 total)
17,839
total US births named Lennon (all years)

US Popularity History (2008–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Lennon climbed 85 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#299 in 2020 → #214 in 2025).

Annual US births named Lennon by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,421 girls named Lennon (girl rank #214 that year).

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Lennon Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Lennon the strongest states are South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska.

Strongest girls-name states

# State Avg rank Births
1 South Dakota #80 110
2 North Dakota #118 94
3 Nebraska #128 174
4 New Hampshire #143 40
5 Iowa #148 223
6 Minnesota #159 369
7 Maine #161 57
8 Utah #163 295
9 Montana #167 43
10 Wisconsin #171 332

Weakest girls-name states

# State Avg rank Births
1 New York #584 294
2 Texas #583 522
3 New Jersey #579 143
4 Virginia #527 162
5 California #518 648
6 Florida #493 351
7 South Carolina #440 116
8 Maryland #434 123
9 Alabama #410 121
10 Nevada #406 52

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lennon in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Lennon?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

See all names like Lennon →

Compare Lennon to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lennon against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Compare to a different name →

Lennon Baby Name Ideas