Leon
- Pronunciation
- [Lee-on]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Lion
- Origin
- French
About the Name Leon
Leon descends from the Greek Leōn meaning "lion" — the same Latin/Greek root that produces the related Leo (see separate entry on Leo) and Leonardo. Leon has been used across European Christian-influenced naming traditions for over a millennium, anchored by multiple Saint Leons (most notably Saint Leon I "the Great," 5th-century pope) and by the Roman/medieval association with the lion as a symbol of strength and royal authority.
The name has been continuously used across French, German, Polish, Russian, and Spanish naming traditions. Notable bearers include Russian writer Leon Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, 1879–1940, the Marxist revolutionary who co-led the 1917 Russian Revolution before his exile and 1940 assassination by Stalin's agent in Mexico City); American filmmaker Leon Russell (American singer-songwriter, 1942–2016); and contemporary American actor Leon Robinson.
Leon held a US top-100 boys' rank from 1880 through 1948 — nearly seven decades of consistent American popularity. After a long mid-20th-century quiet period, the name has been climbing back through the 2010s and 2020s, partly through the broader vintage-revival wave alongside Theodore and Henry, and partly through the parallel surge of the related Leo. Leon climbed into the US top 200 boys' rank by 2018. The name's appeal is its compact European elegance — two short syllables, the in-built lion-imagery, and the broad recognizability across French, German, Polish, Russian, and Spanish naming. Common nicknames Lee, Leo (now itself a popular standalone name), and the rare Leonid each carry distinct registers; the longer formal Leonard remains in use as Leon's related extended form. International forms include León (Spanish, with accent), Leon (French/German/Polish/Slavic, identical), Leone (Italian masculine), Lev (Russian, the same root), and the original Greek Leōn.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Leon
US Popularity History (1883–2025)
Annual US births named Leon by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1924 with 2,677 boys named Leon (boy rank #76 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #138 for boys (2,583 US births). That's 62 places below its 1924 peak.
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.
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Where in the US Is Leon Most Popular?
Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Leon the strongest states are Alaska, Washington, California.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska | #123 | 76 |
| 2 | Washington | #128 | 644 |
| 3 | California | #140 | 2,991 |
| 4 | New York | #142 | 1,298 |
| 5 | Minnesota | #144 | 449 |
| 6 | Hawaii | #146 | 86 |
| 7 | Oregon | #148 | 298 |
| 8 | District of Columbia | #171 | 40 |
| 9 | South Dakota | #174 | 32 |
| 10 | Colorado | #175 | 388 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #427 | 53 |
| 2 | South Carolina | #398 | 127 |
| 3 | Louisiana | #330 | 157 |
| 4 | Alabama | #330 | 152 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #320 | 112 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #303 | 356 |
| 7 | Tennessee | #291 | 290 |
| 8 | Nebraska | #282 | 89 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #277 | 193 |
| 10 | Maryland | #276 | 203 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Leon in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leone | Lion | Female | French |
Famous People Named Leon
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Leon.
- Leon Štukelj was a legendary Slovene gymnast.
- Leon Trotsky — Politician (1879)
Looking for names like Leon?
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.
Compare Leon to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Leon against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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