Lionell
Masculine · “Latin leo”
Lionel of Antwerp, third son of Edward III, enacted the Statute of Kilkenny in 1366, which forbade English settlers in Ireland to speak Irish, marry Irish, use Irish law or ride in the Irish manner. It was a law against a colony going native.
How old is the name Lionell?
Lionell first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Lionell alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 1,200 people named Lionell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lionell most popular?
Lionell peaked in 1949, reaching #1227 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 8,487 places below that high. See the whole 1949 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From leo to Lionell
The story of Lionell
The English lordship of Ireland had been shrinking for a century, and the settler families in it were increasingly indistinguishable from their Irish neighbors, using Irish law, language, dress and fosterage. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was sent as the king's lieutenant and the parliament he held at Kilkenny in 1366 passed a statute intended to stop it: English settlers were forbidden to speak Irish, adopt Irish names, marry into Irish families, use brehon law, keep Irish poets, or ride without a saddle. It was written in Norman French and applied only to the English, not to the Irish. It was almost entirely unenforceable and the process it tried to halt continued, but it remained on the books until the seventeenth century and is the standard example of a colonial power legislating against its own settlers' assimilation.
Meaning
Latin leo, lion
Lionell is a respelling of Lionel, a Norman French diminutive of Leon, from Latin leo, a lion, giving little lion. It appears in Arthurian romance as the name of a knight, brother of Bors. The doubled l is an American addition. The peak of this spelling is 1949.
How the name formed
- leo
- Leon
- Lionel
- Lionell
Related forms: Lionel · Lionel · Leonel
Pronouncing Lionell
LY-uh-nel
Three syllables, stress on the first. Lionell and Lionel are homophones; the doubled l is not doing phonetic work.
Nicknames for Lionell
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 196036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1227reached in 1949
- Change vs 2019
- −12.5%7 in 2025, from 8
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.
Lionell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lionel in English — spelling variant
- Lionel in French — same name
- Leonel in Spanish — same name
Lionells among us
people named Lionell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Lionell
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lionell
- #9714
- Lionell on the 2025 chart
- #546
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lionell went to 7 boys in 2025, but Lionel and Lyonel are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 431, which makes it the 546th most-given boys’ name of the year — 9,168 places above the chart.
- Lionel419
- Lionell7
- Lyonel5
About 1 boy in 3,963 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 244,011 for Lionell itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rodman test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lionell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rodman climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rodman's path sketches the road Lionell is walking now.
Lionell 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
Lionell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lionell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Leo is available as a short form and is a popular name.
- The Latin meaning is clear and unambiguous.
- Three syllables with firm first-syllable stress.
- Lionel is the standard spelling.
- The doubled l adds nothing audible.
- The 1949 peak places it in the mid-century.
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Lionell
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lionells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Lionell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lionell?
- Lionell is one of 3 recorded spellings. Lionel is the more common one — 419 births in 2025 against 7 for Lionell.
- How popular is the name Lionell in 2025?
- Lionell ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lionell?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Lionell — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lionell with classmates?
- Lionell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lionell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lionell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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