How many Deleons are there in the world?

No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Deleon are estimated to be alive in the US today.

How popular is the name Deleon in 2025?

Deleon ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.

How rare is the name Deleon?

About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Deleon — 8 in all.

Will my child share the name Deleon with classmates?

Deleon will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Deleon

Masculine · “Latin legio”

Deleon is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 967 boys against 14 girls since 1880.

#8910 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year

rare8 boys in 2025

The Spanish city of Leon is not named for a lion. It is named for the Legio VII Gemina, the Roman legion garrisoned there, and Latin legio became Leon by ordinary sound change. The lion is a misreading so old and so complete that the city put one on its coat of arms.

How old is the name Deleon?

Deleon first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Deleon alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 800 people named Deleon are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Deleon most popular?

Deleon peaked in 1980, reaching #2284 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,626 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.

Compare this name More “D” names

Lists built from the same records:

Where it comes from

From Legio to Deleon

The story of Deleon

Folk etymology usually leaves no trace beyond a wrong belief, but here it changed the heraldry of a kingdom. Leon was founded as a legionary camp and its name records that. By the high middle ages Spanish speakers heard leon, lion, because the two words had converged in sound, and the kingdom adopted a rampant lion as its arms, which it still bears and which stands in the second quarter of the Spanish national coat of arms today. So a Roman military administrative term is represented on a modern flag by an animal that was never involved. The name also shows the other use of Spanish de-, a genuine preposition meaning of, attached to a real place. That is worth setting beside the American prefix De- in names like Delana, which is a syllable with no content at all. The two look identical on paper and share nothing.

Meaning

Latin legio, a legion

Deleon is the Spanish surname de Leon, of Leon, used as a given name in American records. The city and kingdom of Leon take their name from Legio, the Seventh Legion, whose permanent camp became the town; Latin legionem gave Leon through regular Spanish sound change. The identical word for a lion, Latin leonem, is a separate source that produced the same modern spelling. The American peak of the given name is 1980.

How the name formed

Legio
Leon
de Leon
Deleon

Related forms: De Leon · Deleon

Pronouncing Deleon

deh-lee-OHN

Three syllables, stress on the last in Spanish. American English usually says duh-LEE-on with the stress moved forward. Spanish writes an accent on the final syllable to mark it.

Nicknames for Deleon

Moderate

LeonThe stem, a complete name in its own right

DeeThe particle used alone, treated as a short form in American usage

What the data says

146 years of official birth records

The long climb, and where it stands now

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded: 1917
Most boys named: 200224 — the highest on record
Peak rank: #2284reached in 1980
Change vs 2023: −38.5%8 in 2025, from 13

Deleon sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 2002, with 24 boys. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.

Deleon in other languages

The same name elsewhere

De Leon in Spanish — same name
Deleon in English — spelling variant

Deleons among us

800

people named Deleon are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Deleon

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

III

Is it right for you

What happens to a name after it peaks

The Fredderick test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Deleon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Fredderick climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Fredderick's path sketches the road Deleon is walking now.

40%chance Deleon will feel dated by 2040

Deleon, aligned on its peakFredderick· peak 1953not yet written

Deleon today is about where Fredderick stood in 1998 — 45 years past a #2287-sized peak. Within 15 years, Fredderick had drifted out of the mainstream charts.

Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Deleon sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.

A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored

Deleon beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Deleon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Deleonthis name8#8910Davie8#8910Ned8#8910Darious8#8910Alois8#8910

US boys given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths

Leon is available as a short form and is a common name on its own.
It is a genuine Spanish surname with a documented Roman origin.
The stressed final syllable gives it a firm ending.

What to consider

Spanish and English stress it differently.
It reads as a surname, which it is.
The lion association is universal and historically wrong.

Nobody names a baby alone.
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Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Deleons are there in the world?: No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Deleon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How popular is the name Deleon in 2025?: Deleon ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Deleon?: About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Deleon — 8 in all.
Will my child share the name Deleon with classmates?: Deleon will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Deleon

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Davie^#8910 · Ned^#8910 · Darious^#8910 · Alois^#8910 · Len^#8910 · Barton^#8910 · Desmon^#8910 · Winfield^#8910

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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