Leocadia
Feminine
Leocadia is a saint's name in Spain and Poland and almost unknown elsewhere, and its derivation has never been settled. The woman who shared a house with Goya while he covered its walls in the darkest pictures he ever made was called by it.
How old is the name Leocadia?
Leocadia first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Leocadia alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Leocadia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Leocadia most popular?
Leocadia peaked in 1917, reaching #1065 nationally. See the whole 1917 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Leocadia
Goya bought a house outside Madrid in his seventies, deaf, ill and living with a much younger woman named Leocadia Weiss and her daughter, and over about four years he painted directly onto its plaster walls — in oil, over existing decorative schemes — fourteen pictures that he never named, never exhibited and never mentioned in writing. They include a giant eating a child and a dog's head sinking in an expanse of nothing. He left the house to Leocadia's son and went to France. Fifty years later a new owner had the paintings cut off the walls and transferred to canvas, a process that damaged them considerably and involved a restorer filling in what had been lost. What hangs in Madrid now is a partly reconstructed version of pictures that were never meant to leave a dining room.
Meaningscholars disagree
possibly from a Greek word about brightness
The usual derivation takes it from a Greek adjective meaning bright or clear, sometimes attached to a place name in the Ionian islands. Neither connection is secure, and the name's real history in Spain begins with a martyr in Toledo about whom almost nothing reliable is known.
Pronouncing Leocadia
leh-oh-KAH-dee-ah
Five syllables in Spanish with the stress on the third. English speakers compress it to four, and both are heard in American families.
Nicknames for Leocadia
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 192149 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1065reached in 1917
- Change vs 1950
- +40.0%7 in 2021, from 5
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.
Leocadia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leocadia in Spanish — same name
- Leokadia in Polish — same name
- Leocádia in Portuguese — same name
Leocadias among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Leocadia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Leocadia sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Leo detaches cleanly and is a complete name for either sex.
- It is a real saint's name in two national traditions, which gives it depth.
- Every syllable is open, which makes it easy to say once the length is accepted.
- Five syllables is very long for forms built around shorter names.
- Leokadia, Leocadie and Leocadia are all recorded and the spelling will need giving.
- The derivation is contested, so the meaning has to come with a qualification.
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Leocadia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Leocadias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Leocadia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Leocadia in 2025?
- Leocadia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Leocadia with classmates?
- Leocadia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leocadia? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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