Leonia
Almost unheard of a decade ago, it now goes to close to 50 baby girls a year and keeps climbing, though it stays rare enough that most Poles have never met one. From the Greek for lion.
Leonia Pronunciation
Leonia is pronounced le-O-nyah (/lɛˈɔɲa/).
What Leonia means
Where Leonia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
The name Leonia comes from Greek, from leon, the lion. Its meaning has stayed near the animal ever since. In Polish that sense arrives as lwica or lwiątko, a lioness or a lion cub, depending on how tenderly you read it.
The name keeps close relatives. Leon is the masculine form, still common on Polish birth records. Léonie is the French variant, and it holds a literary claim: Marcel Proust gave the name to tante Léonie, the bedridden aunt of Combray who rules her household from her sickbed and misses nothing. A lioness of a kind, small in movement and large in will.
Read from a class register, Leonia sits among longer, softer names and holds its ground. The lion is right there in the first syllable. Whether a girl grows into the lioness or stays the cub, the Greek root does not soften: leon, and nothing gentler.
When Leonia celebrates name day
Leonia appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 10 January.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Leonia
1 in 31398 women in Poland is named Leonia. 718 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1101 among female names.
Leonia's popularity over time
49 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #354 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2012.
Where parents choose Leonia
Leonia is most popular in Masovian, 65% above the national average (44 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+46%) and Greater Poland (+36%). It is least common in Warmian-Masurian and Holy Cross, 63% and 52% below average respectively.
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Masovian
+65%1 in 8,051 babies
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Lesser Poland
+46%1 in 9,077 babies
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Greater Poland
+36%1 in 9,784 babies
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Warmian-Masurian
−63%1 in 35,897 babies
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Holy Cross
−52%1 in 27,717 babies
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Lublin
−48%1 in 25,669 babies
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Masovian+65% 44 born1 in 8,051 babies+65%
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Lesser Poland+46% 25 born1 in 9,077 babies+46%
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Greater Poland+36% 22 born1 in 9,784 babies+36%
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Opole+15% 4 born1 in 11,524 babies+15%
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Lower Silesian+1% 12 born1 in 13,095 babies+1%
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Subcarpathian−1% 9 born1 in 13,396 babies−1%
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West Pomeranian−6% 6 born1 in 14,071 babies−6%
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Pomeranian−10% 10 born1 in 14,732 babies−10%
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Silesian−18% 14 born1 in 16,256 babies−18%
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Łódź−37% 6 born1 in 21,120 babies−37%
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Podlaskie−40% 3 born1 in 21,929 babies−40%
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Lublin−48% 4 born1 in 25,669 babies−48%
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Holy Cross−52% 2 born1 in 27,717 babies−52%
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Warmian-Masurian−63% 2 born1 in 35,897 babies−63%
Leonia as a middle name
Leonia is a first name for 718 women in Poland and a middle name for another 373, a 66/34 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 351st, between Lara (377) and Zoja (369).
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#349 Irma380
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#350 Lara377
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#351 Leonia373
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#352 Zoja369
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#353 Narcyza367