Leonida
From the Greek word for lion, it lands almost entirely on women here, a lioness by name. Fewer than 300 people in Poland carry it, and none have been given it in recent years, so meeting one stays memorable.
Leonida Pronunciation
Leonida is pronounced le-o-NYEE-dah (/lɛɔˈɲida/).
What Leonida means
Where Leonida comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Leonida traces back to the Greek Leonidas, built on leon, the word for lion. An old suffix, -idas, marked a son or a descendant, so the fuller name once meant something close to son of the lion. Over time the short meaning has settled into a single word: lion, or lioness for a woman who carries it.
The best-known holder of the older form was Leonidas I, the Spartan king who died defending the pass at Thermopylae in 480 BC. Italians kept the name in their own spelling, and there Leonida serves as a man's name. It travels well, and the lion goes with it.
On a Polish class register, Leonida stands out as an unusual entry, rare enough that a teacher might slow down over the spelling. What the child carries is plain. The name means lion.
When Leonida celebrates name day
Leonida appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 22 April.
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 Leonida
1 in 86707 women in Poland is named Leonida. 266 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1874 among female names.
Leonida as a middle name
Leonida is a first name for 266 women in Poland and a middle name for another 18, a 94/6 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1725th, between Lajla (18) and Maeve (18).
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#1723 Kariona18
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#1724 Lajla18
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#1725 Leonida18
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#1726 Maeve18
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#1727 Maggie18