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The first name 
Leonard

Leonard is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.

Leonard is a common name for boys!

The name Leonard isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Leonard ranks 606. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 2 were named Leonard. In the entire USA, approximately 278,656 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Leonard. That is 0.08 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Leonard

What does the name 
Leonard mean?

The name Leonard is of Old German origin and means ‘brave lion’. It is composed of ‘lewo’ for ‘lion’ and ‘hart’ for ‘hard, firm, brave, hardy’. It is a popular name in many languages including English, French, German, Dutch and Polish.

In the US,... Leonard was very popular around 1920. Since then, its popularity has been declining.

Leonard has several well-known namesakes

A singer-songwriter, poet and novelist

Leonard Norman Cohen (1934–2016)
The Canadian is a well known folk musician - to this day, his song »Hallelujah« is often covered by other musicians.

A movie star

Leonard Simon Nimoy (1931–2015)
Nimoy was a US-actor who was especially known for his role as »Spock« in the Star Trek franchise, in which he played for almost 50 years. Apart from being an actor he was also a director, photographer, singer and songwriter.

A rockstar

Leonard Albert Kravitz (*1964)
Better known as »Lenny« Kravitz, the rock musician and actor got widely known after the hit »It Ain't over 'til it's over«. The song »Fly away« from 1998 brought him his first of four Grammy Awards.

A football player

Leonard Joseph Fournette III (*1995)
He plays in the position of running back and was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2017 NFL Draft. Since 2020 he has been playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won the Super Bowl LV.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Leonard, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Leonard? Are you also called Leonard? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

A town

The city of Leonard is located in Fannin County in the US state of Texas.

A college

St. Leonard's College is an independent bilingual school in Melbourne, Australia.

A municipality

Saint-Léonard is a municipality in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Lake »Souterrain de Saint-Léonard« is located there. It is the largest natural underground lake in Europe.

Leonard -
very popular in the 20th century

Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Leonard is a staple in the country: Boys have been given the name Leonard for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Leonard is therefore one of only 442 boys’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Leonard is a very special name that peaked in popularity some time ago in the 20th century. Placed at #36 Leonard easily made it into the top 100 boys' names of our SmartGenius statistics for male first names and has never been more popular than back in 1923.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Leonard was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

368 newborn babies with the name Leonard in 2022

As many as 368 babies were named Leonard in the USA in 2022, ranking it at #667 on the list of the most popular boys' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 2009, when it was only ranked #682 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 323 boys were named Leonard.

Leonard -
at home all over the USA, especially popular in North Dakota

Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Leonard. Because: There are men and boys named Leonard in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, just 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Leonard is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular male first names, for example in Nebraska, where Leonard ranks on position 73. The greatest chance of meeting Leonard, however, is in North Dakota, where one in 305 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 599 men and boys and in Nevada, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 2,357 men and boys for their name before you once get Leonard as an answer.

Leonard has 7 letters 
and begins with an L

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter L is neither particularly common nor particularly rare as a first letter for boys' names: 4.1% of all common boys' names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters of boys' names are J and A, while X and U are the least common initials of boys' names.

With seven letters, the name Leonard has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Thus, it follows that with 4.1% of all boys' names starting with an L, this initial letter occurs about as often as all 26 letters on average. Nevertheless, there are boys' names with L that are quite common, the most common in the U.S. at present is Larry.

Other names with 
L, e, o, n, a, r and d

If you take all the letters in the name Leonard – L, e, o, n, a, r and d – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Lenoard or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Leonard

If your name is Leonard and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Leonard

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Leonard, you can simply say:

Lion

Elephant

Orange

Nut

Apple

Rocket

Dinosaur

This is how the name Leonard is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Leonard in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Leonard

Leonard

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Leonard

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Leonard is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

L
E
O
N
A
R
D

Have you ever waved the name Leonard

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

L
E
O
N
A
R
D

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Leonard sounds like this: