Leo
Masculine · Greek roots · “Lion”
Leo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 259,988 boys against 2,136 girls since 1880. See Leo as a girl name
Leo is the Latin word for lion, used as a name without interruption since Roman times and carried by more than a dozen popes — among them Leo I in the fifth century and Leo XIII, who led the Catholic Church into the twentieth century. Two syllables, four letters, and an open vowel at the end that lifts when it is called across a room. It is also the short form hiding inside Leonardo, Leonard and Leopold, which is part of how it traveled so far.
How old is the name Leo?
Leo was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Leo alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 149,000 people named Leo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leo most popular?
Leo peaked in 2023, reaching #18 nationally. Today it ranks #19, 1 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Leo appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Three-letter names: tiny and complete
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Greatest Generation names (born 1901–1927)
- all guides
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Leon (Greek) to Leo
The story of Leo
The word came into Latin from Greek leon and was in use as a Roman personal name by late antiquity. Christianity did most of the carrying: the popes named Leo, beginning in the fifth century, kept the name in continuous official use for some fifteen hundred years, and Byzantine emperors bore it too. From Latin it spread outward into nearly every European language, sometimes staying as Leo, sometimes lengthening into Leone, León or Leonardo. English-speaking families used it steadily through the nineteenth century, often in Irish and Italian Catholic households, and it never fully left the records afterwards.
Meaning
Lion
Straight from Latin leo, itself borrowed from Greek leon. The same word gives us the constellation and zodiac sign.
Cultural footprint
Leo XIV (b. 1955) — First American pope
Leo XIII (b. 1810) — Pope whose 1891 encyclical championed workers' rights
Leo I (b. 390) — Leo the Great — talked Attila the Hun out of sacking Rome
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- LeonGreek
- LeoLatin
- Leo
Related forms: Leo · Léo · Leone · León · Leon · Leó
Pronouncing Leo
LEE-oh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said the same way in English, German and Dutch; French adds a light accent, Léo, without changing the sound much.
Nicknames for Leo
Moderate
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20228,293 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #18reached in 2023
- Change vs 2022
- −1.4%8,173 in 2025, from 8,293
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.
Leo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leo in German — same name
- Léo in French — spelling variant
- Leone in Italian — related form
- León in Spanish — related form
- Leon in Greek — related form
- Leó in Hungarian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Leos among us
people named Leo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 209 born in 2025 was named Leo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Adam test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Leo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Adam climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Adam's path sketches the road Leo is walking now.
Leo has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Leo is headed
Leo should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Leo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters that spell themselves — almost nobody will ask you to repeat it or write it down twice.
- Recognized across English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Greek, with only small changes at the edges.
- An unbroken written record from Roman antiquity through the papacy to the present, so it has never needed reviving.
- Works as the short form of Leonardo, Leonard or Leopold, if a longer name on the certificate appeals later.
- Charts in Canada, England and Wales, and Scotland as well as the US.
- It is rising quickly. Older generations knew relatively few Leos; the children being named now are joining a much larger group, so expect classmates.
- It sits in a crowded sound family — Leon, Milo, Theo, Leonardo — and people who half-hear it sometimes reach for the wrong one.
- Almost nothing to shorten. If you like a formal long name with a casual everyday version, Leo is already the casual version.
- The zodiac sign comes with the name for free, which some families enjoy and others find they have to explain.
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What they receive
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Leo
Masculine · Greek roots · #19 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 149,000 people named Leo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Leo in 2025?
- Leo ranks #19 among US boy names in 2025, with 8,173 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Leo?
- About 1 in every 209 US boys born in 2025 was named Leo — 8,173 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leo with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 8 classrooms will have a child named Leo.
Ranked beside Leo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ezra#20 · Samuel#18 · Hudson#17 · Michael#21 · Sebastian#16 · Daniel#22 · Jack#15 · John#23
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leo and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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