ninan.org

Leo

Boys' name · Current perennial

Living in the US
~149,600 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#19 among boys
Births in 2025
8,196 262,124 since 1880
Typical age
10 years, median

Leo popularity over time

Leo rank by birth year, 1880–2025Leo ranked #92 in 1880 and #19 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #18, in 2023.#100#1918901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

More children were named Leo in 2022 than in any other year — 8,325 of them. The name is already in use in 1880, where the data begins. It has held a top-100 place in 69 separate years.

In 2025 it ranked #19 with 8,196 births. The ten-year change is +78%.

Babies named Leo per yearPeaks at 8,325 births in 2022.8,325 in 2022018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Leo?

Roughly 149,600 Leos are alive in the US right now. That is out of 262,124 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Leo?

Median age among living Leos: 10. More of them were born in the 2020s than in any other decade. By the site’s era rules that makes Leo a current perennial name.

Your Leo

Ages of living people named LeoHalf of living Leos are older than 10 and half younger.median 10020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Leo is most common

Leo is 2.8× as common in District of Columbia as it is nationally. Vermont, North Dakota and South Dakota follow.

Where Leo is used more than average5 states use the name Leo more than the national average.Alaska: not over-representedAKMaine: not over-representedMEVermont: 2.7× the national rateVTNew Hampshire: not over-representedNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: 2.2× the national rateNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: not over-representedWYSouth Dakota: 2.2× the national rateSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: 2.8× the national rateDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: 2.1× the national rateHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Leo is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
District of Columbia 370 2.8×
Vermont 137 2.7×
North Dakota 296 2.2×
South Dakota 305 2.2×
Hawaii 269 2.1×

Leo in England and Wales

ONS recorded 3,282 births named Leo in 2025, ranking it #3.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Leo comes from

From Latin leō (“lion”), Ancient Greek λέων, Akkadian 𒉈𒍑/Akkadian 𒌨𒄞𒆷, from Sumerian 𒌨𒄞𒆷 (“lion; name of constellation”). Doublet of Leon, leu, lev, lion, Lyon.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Leo

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Leo Esaki Japanese physicist (1925-) 1925 74
Leo Varadkar Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020, and from 2022 to 2024. 1979 72
Leo III the Isaurian emperor of Byzantine Empire 675–741 69
Leo Szilard Hungarian-American Jewish physicist and inventor 1898–1964 67
Leo Baekeland Belgium American inventor 1863–1944 55
Leo von Caprivi German Chancellor and Prussian General of the Infantry and Prime Minister 1831–1899 53
Leo IV the Khazar Byzantine emperor 750–780 53
Leo Strauss History of Political Philosophy scholar 1899–1973 51
Photo credits (6)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 862 in 1911 to 1,671 in 1912 — 1.9 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Names similar to Leo

Matched by sound and spelling inside this dataset, then ordered by total recorded births. This is not a claim about shared etymology.

Same feel, less common

The same matches, limited to names given at most half as often as Leo was in 2025.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/leo.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).