Lion
Below 5 births
2025 SSA
About Lion
While English speakers may consider this a bold word choice or a short form of Lionel, it is additionally a Hebrew name, combining the elements li and on meaning "my strength, my potency". Predominantly used for girls in Israel (though it is technically unisex), elsewhere it leans masculine, in reference to the animal.
Lion for boys#3219 US
Lion is a masculine name taken straight from the name of the animal, associating it with strength, courage, and nobility across many cultures. With Germanic, French, and English language roots, Lion functions both as a standalone name and as a shortened form of names like Lionel.
Though relatively uncommon as a given name in English-speaking countries, as Fox, Tiger, Wolf, and Raven become more familiar, Lion could work as a twist on Leon and Leo. Given to 31 boys in a recent year, it was additionally chosen as a middle name by YouTubers Savannah Jean and Josh Alexander (Sav&Josh) for their son born in 2026.
Additionally, Lion is occasionally used as a Hebrew name, blending the elements Li and On to give it the meaning "my strength". In this case, it would be considered unisex, and pronounced as lee-ON.
Pronounced LY-un.
As of October 2026, Lion ranked #3219 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #2979 in 2022.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | #4,245 | 24 | 12.5 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | #3,732 | 29 | 15.7 |
| 2018 | #3,845 | 28 | 15.4 |
| 2019 | #3,532 | 32 | 17.8 |
| 2020 | #4,361 | 23 | 13.3 |
| 2021 | #4,322 | 24 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | #2,979 | 42 | 24.1 |
| 2023 | #3,034 | 41 | 24 |
| 2024 | #3,643 | 31 | 18 |
| 2025 | #3,219 | 37 | 21.7 |
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Lion.
Lion on lists
Famous Lions
- Lion FeuchtwangerBoy
German,Jewish novelist and playwright
- Snoop LionBoy
former stage name of Snoop Dogg (born Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.), American rapper
- P. LionBoy
stage name of Pietro Paolo Pelandi, Italian disco singer
- Lion O'Loughlin (b.2012)Boy
son of actor Alex O'Loughlin and Malia Jones
- Lion Balotelli (b.2017)Boy
son of Mario Balotelli
- Jack Lion Hartzler (b.2014)Boy
son of singer Amy Lee and Josh Hartzler
Lion in pop culture
- Lion RafaleBoy
character in the Virtua Fighter video game series
- Lion UshiromiyaBoy
character in Japanese sound novel "Umineko no Naku Koro ni"
- LionblazeBoy
character from the book series "Warriors" by Erin Hunter
- LionBoy
a magical pink lion on animated series "Steven Universe"
- "LionBoy
" 2016 film