Leo
Leo is ranked 24th among boys in 2024 (7,793 births). Its best rank was 18th, in 2023.
- Rank in 2024
- #24down 6 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 7,7930.45% of boys
- Peak year
- 20228,290 births
- Best rank
- #18in 2023
- Since 1880
- 253,873people given the name
The story in the numbers
251,760 boys have been named Leo in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2022, with 8,290 births — 0.48% of all boys recorded that year.
This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1956, and the 2010s alone account for 18%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 68 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,113 girls have also been given it, 0.83% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Leo | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 2,098 | |
| 1890s | 4,691 | |
| 1900s | 5,629 | |
| 1910s | 26,656 | |
| 1920s | 36,960 | |
| 1930s | 22,864 | |
| 1940s | 16,962 | |
| 1950s | 15,537 | |
| 1960s | 9,485 | |
| 1970s | 5,365 | |
| 1980s | 4,542 | |
| 1990s | 4,738 | |
| 2000s | 12,274 | |
| 2010s | 44,700 | |
| 2020s | 39,259 |
In 2022, its biggest year
Leo was the 22nd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2022 were Liam, Noah, Oliver, James and Elijah. See all of 2022.
Names that rose and fell with Leo
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Everettpeak 2021
- Palmerpeak 2023
- Leopoldpeak 2020
- Ellispeak 2024
- Arleypeak 2012
- Ignatiuspeak 1920
- Emmitpeak 2012
- Lucienpeak 2024
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.