How rare is the name Leon?

80,997 people in the United States have the first name Leon, about 1 in 3,729. It ranks #652 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

LEON

#652

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
80,997
About
1 in 3,729
This common or more
63.2%
Who bears it

Of the 80,997 people named Leon, 48.2% reported their origin as White, 31.9% as Black and 9.6% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are male (99.6%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Leon peaked in 1924, when 2,714 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1924
Births that year
2,714
In 2025*
2,583 ▼5%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 184,074 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Leon by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1920s, when it ranked #185. The largest share of babies named Leon, 22.8%, were born between 1928 and 1945, the Silent Generation's birth years.

1880s#2471,475
1890s#2712,149
1900s#2532,942
1910s#19815,506
1920s#18525,891
1930s#19923,189
1940s#23423,694
1950s#30921,468
1960s#42213,952
1970s#4889,969
1980s#6067,700
1990s#9255,186
2000s#1,0785,062
2010s#57211,768
2020s#28714,123
Before 19012.1%
Greatest Generation 1901–2721.3%
Silent Generation 1928–4522.8%
Baby boom 1946–6421.2%
Generation X 1965–809.3%
Millennials 1981–965.8%
Generation Z 1997–124.7%
2013 and later12.9%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Leon is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Leon has been most common in Mississippi (2.1×), South Carolina (2×), and Louisiana (1.9×), and least common in Wyoming (0.22×).

173,681 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Leon

#650 Neil · 81,118#651 Toni · 81,026#653 Carole · 80,915#654 Santiago · 80,841

Spelled almost the same

8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Leon, most common first.

#1,246 Leona · 30,291#4,176 Len · 4,593#8,098 Leone · 1,813#9,683 Leen · 1,422#10,646 Lean · 1,240#22,112 Lenn · 453#24,570 Leoni · 391#40,182 Leony · 186

Also a last name

As a last name, Leon ranks #362 of 156,621, with 85,611 people. See Leon as a last name

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