Leonard
Climbing fast after quiet years: more boys were named Leonard last year than in any year since 2000. A Germanic name at root, from words for "brave lion", and still uncommon enough that meeting one sticks.
Leonard Pronunciation
Leonard is pronounced le-O-nahrt (/lɛˈɔnart/).
What Leonard means
Where Leonard comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Leonard reaches Polish from the old Germanic world, built from leo, the lion, joined to hart, meaning brave or hardy. So the plain sense is brave as a lion, odważny jak lew. The lion sits inside it.
There was a real Leonard behind the name. Leonard of Noblac, a Frankish figure honored from the sixth century onward, became the patron of prisoners and of women in childbirth, and villages across much of Europe put his name on their churches. His feast falls on the sixth of November, which is when a Polish Leonard marks his imieniny.
The name also opens toward its feminine variant, Leonarda, the same lion carried by a daughter. On a school class register the two can sit a few lines apart. What a Polish Leonard inherits is a compact meaning, odważny jak lew.
When Leonard celebrates name day
Leonard appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar, 2 of them as a main name, the first on 6 November.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
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 Leonard
1 in 2179 men in Poland is named Leonard. 9,795 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #367 among male names.
Leonard's popularity over time
573 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #99 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.
Where parents choose Leonard
Leonard is most popular in Pomeranian, 31% above the national average (303 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+30%) and West Pomeranian (+15%). It is least common in Holy Cross and Subcarpathian, 42% and 36% below average respectively.
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Pomeranian
+31%1 in 486 babies
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Masovian
+30%1 in 491 babies
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West Pomeranian
+15%1 in 555 babies
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Holy Cross
−42%1 in 1,109 babies
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Subcarpathian
−36%1 in 996 babies
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Lublin
−27%1 in 878 babies
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Pomeranian+31% 303 born1 in 486 babies+31%
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Masovian+30% 722 born1 in 491 babies+30%
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West Pomeranian+15% 152 born1 in 555 babies+15%
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Lower Silesian+10% 270 born1 in 582 babies+10%
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Greater Poland+10% 371 born1 in 580 babies+10%
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Łódź±0% 199 born1 in 637 babies±0%
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Lesser Poland−1% 350 born1 in 648 babies−1%
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Opole−7% 67 born1 in 688 babies−7%
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Podlaskie−13% 90 born1 in 731 babies−13%
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Silesian−18% 292 born1 in 779 babies−18%
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Warmian-Masurian−19% 91 born1 in 789 babies−19%
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Lubusz−23% 60 born1 in 828 babies−23%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−25% 128 born1 in 855 babies−25%
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Lublin−27% 117 born1 in 878 babies−27%
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Subcarpathian−36% 121 born1 in 996 babies−36%
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Holy Cross−42% 50 born1 in 1,109 babies−42%
Leonard as a middle name
Leonard is a first name for 9,795 men in Poland and a middle name for another 6,040, a 62/38 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 122nd, between Konstanty (6,126) and Alan (6,025).
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#120 Augustyn6,663
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#121 Konstanty6,126
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#122 Leonard6,040
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#123 Alan6,025
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#124 Remigiusz5,954