Leonel
A masculine name of French origin meaning "little lion".
Name Census estimates that about 24,699 living Americans carry the first name Leonel. It sits at #319 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Leonel today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leonel births was 2024 (1,079 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leonel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leonel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,877 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,079 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#319
Tracked since 1910
Census
Leonel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 28,887 people with the first name Leonel, which placed it at #1,281 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,281
National first-name rank
People counted
29K
28,887 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leonel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leonel is Hispanic at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (3.1%) and Black (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Leonel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Leonel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.0% · 27,440
- White3.1% · 885
- Black or African American1.2% · 338
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 154
- Two or more races0.2% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 26
Gender
Gender distribution for Leonel
Out of the 26,121 babies given the name Leonel since 1880, 100.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Leonel as a male name
- Ranked #319 in 2024
- 1,079 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,079 births)
Leonel as a female name
- Ranked #14,761 in 1993
- 5 female births in 1993
- Peak: 1993 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leonel appears almost entirely male. Of the 28,890 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Leonel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leonel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,618 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Leonel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leonel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Leonel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leonels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Leonel, while Kentucky, Nebraska, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 625 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leonel
The name Leonel is derived from the Greek name Leonidas, which means "son of the lion". It is a compound name formed from the Greek words "leon" meaning lion and the genitive suffix "-idas" meaning son of.
The name Leonidas was famously borne by the legendary king of Sparta who led the Spartan forces against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. His name and story have been immortalized in ancient Greek texts and histories.
The name Leonel is a romantic variation of the name Leonidas, popularized during the medieval period in parts of Europe, particularly in Spain and France. It is believed to have been introduced to these regions through the influence of classical Greek literature and culture.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Leonel can be found in the 14th century, when it was borne by Leonel of Antwerp, also known as Leonel of Anjou (1339-1368), a son of King Edward III of England and a prominent figure during the Hundred Years' War.
Another notable bearer of the name was Leonel Tomeu (1456-1531), a Catalan humanist, philosopher, and writer who was a pioneer of the Renaissance in Spain.
In the 16th century, Leonel de Cervantes (1510-1587) was a Spanish painter and sculptor who worked in the Mannerist style and was known for his religious paintings and sculptures.
Leonel Messi (1564-1623) was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, known for his sacred music and madrigals.
In the 19th century, Leonel Rivière (1838-1892) was a French artist and illustrator, renowned for his paintings and illustrations of rural life in Brittany.
While the name Leonel has been used throughout history, it has remained relatively uncommon compared to other variations such as Leon or Leonardo. However, it has endured as a distinctive and meaningful name with its roots in ancient Greek mythology and European history.
People
Leonel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leonel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leonel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leonel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24,699 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leonel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,877 US residents.
Is Leonel a common name?
We classify Leonel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,121 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leonel most popular?
The single biggest year for Leonel was 2024, when 1,079 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leonel is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leonel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 28,887 people with the name Leonel, or 9.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,281 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Leonel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Leonel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leonel appears almost entirely male. Of the 28,890 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Leonel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leonel is Hispanic at 95.0%. The next largest groups are White (3.1%) and Black (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Leonel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Leonel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.0% (27,440 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Leonel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leonel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leonel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Leonel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leonel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Leonel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Leonel?
Want to know how many people have the name Leonel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.