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.
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 Leonard is most popular
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 Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 42% and 36% below average respectively.
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Pomeranian303 boys born+31%
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Masovian722 boys born+30%
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West Pomeranian152 boys born+15%
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Lower Silesian270 boys born+10%
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Greater Poland371 boys born+10%
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Łódź199 boys born0%
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Lesser Poland350 boys born−1%
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Opole67 boys born−7%
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Podlaskie90 boys born−13%
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Silesian292 boys born−18%
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Warmian-Masurian91 boys born−19%
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Lubusz60 boys born−23%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian128 boys born−25%
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Lublin117 boys born−27%
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Subcarpathian121 boys born−36%
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Świętokrzyskie50 boys born−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
6,663Augustyn
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121
6,126Konstanty
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1226,040Leonard
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123
6,025Alan
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124
5,954Remigiusz
When Leonard celebrates name day
Leonard appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 6 November.