Leonora
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "light" or "brightness".
Name Census estimates that about 3,013 living Americans carry the first name Leonora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leonora today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leonora births was 1924 (138 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leonora. 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 Leonora with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,758 Americans
Peak year
1924
138 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,087
Tracked since 1880
Census
Leonora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,625 people with the first name Leonora, which placed it at #3,629 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
#3,629
National first-name rank
People counted
5.6K
5,625 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leonora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leonora is White at 39.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.1%) and Hispanic (18.0%). 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 Leonora 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 Leonora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.7% · 2,233
- Asian and Pacific Islander30.1% · 1,693
- Hispanic or Latino18.0% · 1,010
- Black or African American8.8% · 493
- Two or more races2.7% · 154
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 42
Popularity
Leonora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leonora from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,262 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Leonora remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leonora 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 Leonora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leonoras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Leonora, while Wisconsin, Missouri, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 137 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leonora
The name Leonora derives from the Greek name Eleonore, which means "light" or "bright one". It has its roots in the Greek word "eleos", meaning compassion or mercy. The name Leonora gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Leonora can be found in the 12th century romance poem "Yvain, the Knight of the Lion" by Chrétien de Troyes. In this work, Leonora is the name of a young noblewoman who is rescued by the knight Yvain.
The name Leonora also appears in various literary works throughout history. In the 16th century, the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes featured a character named Leonora in his novel "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha". In the 18th century, the English playwright Oliver Goldsmith wrote a play titled "The Good-Natur'd Man", which included a character named Leonora.
Among notable historical figures bearing the name Leonora, one can mention Leonora Christina Ulfeldt (1621-1698), a Danish writer and daughter of Christian IV of Denmark. Another example is Leonora of Portugal (1498-1558), who was the Queen of Portugal and a patron of the arts.
In the realm of music, Leonora Duarte (1610-1678) was a renowned Portuguese composer and singer during the Baroque era. Leonora Garetti (1876-1959) was an Italian operatic soprano who performed in various renowned opera houses across Europe.
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist who was part of the Surrealist movement in the mid-20th century.
These are just a few examples of the countless individuals throughout history who have borne the name Leonora, a name with a rich cultural and literary heritage spanning centuries.
People
Leonora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leonora 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
Leonora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leonora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,013 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leonora 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 113,758 US residents.
Is Leonora a common name?
We classify Leonora as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,390 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leonora most popular?
The single biggest year for Leonora was 1924, when 138 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leonora is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leonora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,625 people with the name Leonora, or 1.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,629 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 Leonora 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 Leonora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leonora appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,625 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Leonora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leonora is White at 39.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.1%) and Hispanic (18.0%). 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 Leonora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leonora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.7% (2,233 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 Leonora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leonora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leonora in the SSA data are female. 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 Leonora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leonora 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 Leonora 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 called Leonora?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.