Leonard
Top 1000
About Leonard
Leonard is the name of several saints, including one who is the patron saint of childhood, and another medieval saint who's the patron of prisoners--known for freeing prisoners he deemed worthy of God. Popular from 1900 to 1930, Leonard is perhaps more notable for those who dropped the name when they entered show biz than those who kept it: former Leonards include Roy Rogers and Tony Randall. Two musical Leonards did keep their names though--composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein and poet-singer Leonard Cohen. Leonard Woolf was the husband and publisher of great English novellist Virginia Woolf. These days, modern parents tend to prefer Leo or the romantic Italian Leonardo, especially since Leonard does not get pronounced with the trendy "Leo" sound.
Pronounced LEH-uh-nard.
As of October 2026, Leonard ranked #637 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #37 in 1923, Nameberry popularity #762.
Editor: Sophie Kihm
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #666 | 385 | 200.4 |
| 2015 | #651 | 400 | 208.7 |
| 2016 | #599 | 450 | 237.1 |
| 2017 | #605 | 437 | 236.1 |
| 2018 | #636 | 417 | 229.6 |
| 2019 | #615 | 443 | 246.9 |
| 2020 | #637 | 420 | 243.3 |
| 2021 | #650 | 421 | 240.6 |
| 2022 | #711 | 371 | 212.5 |
| 2023 | #692 | 384 | 224.5 |
| 2024 | #673 | 404 | 234.5 |
| 2025 | #637 | 438 | 256.4 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Leonard.
- Eugene
- Abraham
- Bernard
- Gilbert
- Edgar
- Harold
- Francis
- Howard
- Eugène
- Clarence
- Martin
- Raymond
- Lawrence
- Ralph
- Bartholomew
- Laurence
- Douglas
- Arnold
- Roger
- Albert
Leonard on lists
Famous Leonards
- Leonard Bernstein
American composer
- Leonard Nimoy
American actor
- Leonard Cohen
Canadian singer
- Leonard Maltin
American film critic
- Leonard "Lenny" Kravitz
American singer
- Leonard Susskind
American physicist, one of the fathers of string theory
- Leonard Hankerson
American football player
- Leonard Johnson
American football player
- Leonard Pope
American football player
- Leonard Walter Jerome
American businessman and grandfather of Winston Churchill
- Leonard Alfred Schneider
birth name of Lenny Bruce, American comedian
- Leonard Kimball Firestone
American businessman, ambassador and philanthropist
- Leonard Barrie "Barry" Corbin
American actor
- Leonard Freeman
American TV writer/producer, creator of "Hawaii Five,0"
- Leonard Sandler
son of actors Kathryn Hahn and Ethan Sandler
- Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill, British politician
- Elmore John Leonard
American novelist
Leonard in pop culture
- Leonard "Lenn(y)" / "Leo" Snart aka Captain Cold
character in DC Comics
- Leonard Leakey Hofstadter
main character on TV's "The Big Bang Theory".
- Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski
main character on TV's "Laverne and Shirley"
- Leonard "Bones" McCoy
a main character on TV's "Star Trek".
- Leonard Bankhead
main character in "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Leonard "Lenny" Feder
character in movie "Grown Ups"
- Leonard L. Church
a main character on Rooster Teeth's "Red vs. Blue"
- Leonard
a poodle in the movie "The Secret Life of Pets"
- Leonard W. Briscoe
a character from Law and Order
- Leonard Vanderboom
character from Rusty Lake: Roots
- Leonard Cooper
son of Sheldon & Amy Cooper, mentioned in the "Young Sheldon" episode "Graduation" on November 5, 2020