How popular is the baby name Leon in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Leon.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Leon


Posts that mention the name Leon

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2023

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar — located at the southern tip of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, just a few miles away from Northern Africa — is home to roughly 32,700 people

Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 319 babies — 149 baby girls, and 170 baby boys. (My source article said the final tally was 318, but the full list [PDF] included an extra name.)

What were the most popular names among these babies? Ava/Lucia (tie) and Luca.

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Ava and Lucia, 4 baby girls each (tie)
  2. Evie, Lily, Olivia, and Sienna, 3 each (4-way tie)
  3. Alba, Arabella, Brielle, Emma, Esme, Indie, Lena, Luna, Madison, Mia, Noa, Sofia, Sophia, Sophie, Talia, and Valentina, 2 each (16-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Luca, 5 baby boys
  2. Jack, Leon, and Liam, 4 each (3-way tie)
  3. James, Noah, Theo, and William, 3 each (4-way tie)
  4. Aiden, Alexander, Axel, Daniel, Dylan, Evan, Hugo, Jackson, Jake, Joey, Julian, Karim, Leo, Leonardo, Lucas, Matthew, Michael, Mohamed, Rafael, Robin, and Ryan, 2 each (21-way tie)

The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Reign, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)

Unique girl names (97)Unique boy names (99)
Aasiyah, Abigail, Adrianna, Alexandra, Alma, Amelia, Amiah, Anastasia, Anoushka, Anya, Aria, Arianna, Arianne, Arna, Avery, Bassma, Blossom, Carla, Charlotte, Chloe, Cole, Cora, Daisy, Daniella, Deborah, Devorah, Eadie, Eleanor, Elena, Eliana, Elie, Ella, Elodie, Elouisa, Elsie, Emilia, Emilie, Emily, Faith, Farah, Gia, Giselle, Grace, Gracie-Rae, Hallie, Hannah, Holly, Irene, Isabella, Isadora, Jawhara, Joudia, Julietta, Kaila, Kylie, Layan, Lia, Lilijana, Lilya, Lorena, Lucie, Lucy, Luella, Maram, Matilda, Maya, Mila, Miral, Molly, Niah, Niv, Nora, Nylah, Ottilie, Paige, Penelope, Reign, Rhea, Ria, Riley-Mae, Rina, Rivka, Ruth, Sabrina, Sage, Sara, Scarlett, Sia, Skye, Souhaila, Sydney, Tania, Teresa, Tillia, Vivienne, Yashu, ZainabAaron, Adonis, Alejandro, Alfei, Anthon, Aries, Ashton, August, Ayaan, Ayman, Brooke, Caleb, Charles, Christian, Cody, Colby, Cory, Elai, Eliyahu, Elliott, Eneko, Eoin, Etienne, Evren, Ezio, Finley, Frederick, Gino, Godred, Grayson, Harvey, Hayden, Hiyaan, Ilan, Indra, Jai, Jamie, Jayce, Jayme, Jesse, Johar, Joseph, Joshua, Jovan, Justin, Kai, Keenan, Kobe, Koen, Laurence, Lawson, Lee, Logan, Louay, Louie, Luke, Mael, Mason, Matteo, Max, Milan, Musa, Nasir, Nate, Nathan, Nathaniel, Nial, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nikolai, Nolan, Nyle, Oliver, Ori, Owen, Ramy, Raphael, Ray, Refael, Reign, Rex, Rian, Ricardo, River, Romeo, Roux, Ruben, Rylee, Salman, Sam, Samuel, Scott, Stefan, Theodore, Thiago, Yaakov, Yisroel, Zachary, Ziggy

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)

Popular baby names on Nantucket, 2023

Flag of Massachusetts
Flag of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts island of Nantucket, which sits about 30 miles off the coast Cape Cod, is home to over 14,000 year-round residents (though the population “swells to around 80,000 or more” during July and August).

According to the Nantucket Town Clerk’s office, a total of 158 babies were born on the island in 2023. But we only have access to the names of 108 of these babies. Why?

[B]ecause of a Massachusetts law that separates birth certificates based on the parent’s marital status. If the parents were not married at the time of the birth or the father is not named on the record, the birth certificate is considered a restricted record and is not public.

So, out of the 108 known names, which were the most popular? For girls it was a tie between Leah and Sarah (given to two babies each), and for boys it was a tie between Grayson and Lucas (also given to two babies each).

The 100 other babies were given 100 single-use names:

Archibald, Abigail, Abraham, Alejandro, Alister, Alyssa, Alvaro, Amina, Andrew, Asher, Aurora, Bayard, Beckett, Benjaminas, Brenda, Callan, Carter, Catherine, Cameron, Charlotte, Christiaan, Colin, Cole, Cooper, Curren, Damien, Daniel, Debora, Eden, Edwin, Edward, Emilia, Emma, Enzo, Evelyn, Ezra, Fabian, Fae, Fiona, Gaby, Gabriella, Greydon, Griffyn, Harbor, Henry, Israel, Jacob, Jaden, James, Jantyah, Jefferson, Joshua, Julie, Justina, Kairi, Kiara, Lakelyn, La’Klia, Larkin, Latifa, Leon, Liv, Luna, Lydia, Mabel, Madison, Marianne, Marlow, Matheus, Maverick, Max, Mia, Mila, Milo, Miles, Mukhammadyusuf, Nia, Penelope, Quinn, River, Robin, Roman, Samir, Scarlett, Sergio, Shay, Shepard, Silverio, Skye, Stephanie, Sullivan, Theodore, Therdore, Tiller, Timothy, Wilder, William, Yasna, Yvonne, Zaniyah

Tiller caught my eye — it may have come from the English surname (which originally referred to someone who tilled the soil), but, given the location, I’m hoping it was inspired by the tiller of a boat. Maybe Tiller will become the boaters’ version of Taylor/Tyler? :)

Olivia and Liam — the top names in Boston last year — are nowhere to be found on Nantucket’s list, interestingly.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Massachusetts (public domain)

Popular baby names in Croatia, 2022

Flag of Croatia
Flag of Croatia

Crescent-shaped Croatia is located on the Balkan peninsula. It shares land borders with five other countries: Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

Last year, Croatia welcomed 34,414 babies — 16,904 girls and 17,510 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Mia and Luka (yet again).

Here are Croatia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Mia, 452 baby girls
  2. Lucija, 371
  3. Nika, 370
  4. Mila, 365
  5. Ema, 351
  6. Marta, 335
  7. Rita, 333
  8. Sara, 321
  9. Eva, 267
  10. Dora, 253
  11. Ana, 246 (tie)
  12. Elena, 246 (tie)
  13. Iva, 220
  14. Lea, 202
  15. Petra, 200
  16. Klara, 192 (tie)
  17. Tena, 192 (tie)
  18. Lara, 191
  19. Laura, 184
  20. Lana, 182
  21. Hana, 180
  22. Marija, 171
  23. Franka, 170
  24. Ena, 169
  25. Sofia, 159
  26. Leona, 158 (tie)
  27. Maša, 158 (tie)
  28. Una, 139
  29. Nikol, 133
  30. Emili, 130
  31. Magdalena, 128
  32. Lena, 125
  33. Vita, 124
  34. Tia, 121
  35. Tara, 120
  36. Katja, 117
  37. Nora, 110
  38. Karla, 108
  39. Helena, 103
  40. Bruna, 99
  41. Aurora, 98 (tie)
  42. Roza, 98 (tie)
  43. Iris, 96
  44. Cvita, 94 (tie) – a form of the Slovene name Cvetka, based on the Slovene word cvet, meaning “flower, blossom”
  45. Sofija, 94 (tie)
  46. Aria, 91
  47. Mara, 89
  48. Lota, 88
  49. Doris, 85 (tie)
  50. Maris, 85 (tie)

Boy Names

  1. Luka, 774 baby boys
  2. Jakov, 478
  3. David, 474
  4. Petar, 427
  5. Ivan, 408
  6. Roko, 365 – a form of Rocco
  7. Mateo, 354
  8. Fran, 347
  9. Niko, 328
  10. Matej, 318
  11. Mihael, 312
  12. Josip, 306
  13. Toma, 305
  14. Leon, 293
  15. Lovro, 286
  16. Noa, 282
  17. Filip, 263
  18. Marko, 262
  19. Karlo, 259
  20. Vito, 258
  21. Teo, 256
  22. Ivano, 253
  23. Šimun, 252
  24. Borna, 247
  25. Jan, 229
  26. Lukas, 196
  27. Leo, 187
  28. Gabriel, 184
  29. Ante, 181
  30. Viktor, 170
  31. Nikola, 159
  32. Tin, 153
  33. Adrian, 146
  34. Bruno, 145 (tie)
  35. Liam, 145 (tie)
  36. Toni, 137
  37. Marin, 136
  38. Dominik, 134
  39. Rafael, 126
  40. Oliver, 122
  41. Noel, 114
  42. Emanuel, 111 (tie)
  43. Patrik, 111 (tie)
  44. Duje, 106 – a form of the Ancient Roman name Domnius, ultimately based on the Latin word dominus, meaning “lord, master”
  45. Erik, 102
  46. Maro, 100
  47. Antonio, 98 (tie)
  48. Lovre, 98 (tie)
  49. Vid, 96
  50. Franko, 88

Here’s a link to Croatia’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Statisticki prikaz – Ministarstvo pravosuda i uprave Republike Hrvatske (Document 27 [pdf] specifically), Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Civil ensign of Croatia (public domain)

Keith Richards named his baby after Marlon Brando

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones (in 1965)
Keith Richards

In August of 1969, Rolling Stones guitarist/songwriter Keith Richards and his girlfriend, model/actress Anita Pallenberg, welcomed their first child, a baby boy. They named him Marlon.

Why Marlon?

In his 2010 memoir Life, Richards explained:

Marlon’s full name is Marlon Leon Sundeep. Brando called up while Anita was in hospital, to compliment her on [her role in the movie] Performance. “Marlon, that’s a good name. Why don’t we call him Marlon?”

It’s a curious that they chose “Marlon” given the fact that, during the filming of the 1968 movie Candy, Marlon Brando had tried to seduce Anita, “and, when that failed, tried to seduce Anita and me together.” Maybe the choice had more to do with the timing of the phone call…?

In any case, Richards and Pallenberg (who also had a role in the movie Barbarella) would go on to have two more children: daughter Dandelion Angela in 1972, and son Tara in 1976.

Sources:

Image: Keith Richards 1965 by Olavi Kaskisuo