Leonid
From the Greek for "son of a lion", carried into Poland largely through Russian use. Only about 5,000 men here answer to it, so meeting one tends to stick in the memory.
Leonid Pronunciation
Leonid is pronounced le-O-nyeet (/lɛˈɔɲit/).
What Leonid means
Where Leonid comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Leonid comes from Greek. The root is leon, the lion, the same root behind Leonidas, the Spartan king who held the pass at Thermopylae. From that stem the name reached Russian, where it settled and grew common. The short meaning is plain: son of a lion.
In Russia the name belonged to many public men. Leonid Brezhnev led the Soviet Union for nearly two decades. The writer Leonid Andreyev filled his stories with dread and shadow well before that. Through such bearers the name kept a Russian colour, even as its Greek bones stayed the same.
For a Polish child, Leonid arrives without diminutives and without a feminine partner. It stands as one form, short and firm. On a class register or an official form at the urząd it reads cleanly, a few syllables that trace back to a lion. Son of a lion: that is the sense a parent finds beside it.
When Leonid celebrates name day
Leonid appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 28 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 Leonid
1 in 4163 men in Poland is named Leonid. 5,131 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #482 among male names.
Leonid's popularity over time
6 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #870 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2016. Still the #482 name among living men, even as it slips to #870 among newborns.
Where Leonid is most popular
Leonid is most popular in West Pomeranian, 540% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+426%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+394%).
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West Pomeranian2 boys born+540%
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Lublin2 boys born+426%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian2 boys born+394%
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Lower Silesian2 boys born+244%
Leonid as a middle name
Leonid is a first name for 5,131 men in Poland and a middle name for another 36, a 99/1 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1353rd, between Kudakwashe (36) and Miles (36).
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#1351 Kelechi36
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#1352 Kudakwashe36
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#1353 Leonid36
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#1354 Miles36
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#1355 Moses36