Léon
From the Greek for "lion", worn here in its French spelling with the accent over the e. Fewer than a hundred men in Poland carry it, and it's given rarely now: most Poles have never met a Léon.
Léon Pronunciation
Léon is pronounced LÉON (/léɔn/).
What Léon means
Where Léon comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Léon begins in Greek. The word leon meant lion, and Latin carried it forward as Leo. French reshaped that Leo into Léon, giving the name a home in Paris long before it reached Polish registers. Its short meaning never drifted far from the animal, and in Polish it lands as lew.
One of its French bearers was Léon Foucault, the physicist who hung a pendulum in the Panthéon in 1851 to show the earth turning beneath the floor. The name suited a man chasing something large. Lion, after all.
Polish speakers rarely stop at the full form. Among friends Léon becomes Lolek, while a girl built on the same Greek root answers to Leona. Open a school register in Kraków and the lion sits there under three spellings: Léon, Lolek, Leona.
How many people are named Léon
1 in 195837 men in Poland is named Léon. 109 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3265 among male names.
Léon's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Where Léon is most popular
Léon is most popular in Subcarpathian, 258% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+193%) and Masovian (+144%).
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Subcarpathian2 boys born+258%
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Pomeranian2 boys born+193%
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Masovian4 boys born+144%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born+90%
Léon as a middle name
Léon is a first name for 109 men in Poland and a middle name for another 32, a 77/23 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1481st, between Leonhard (32) and Musa (32).
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#1479 Lam32
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#1480 Leonhard32
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#1481 Léon32
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#1482 Musa32
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#1483 Protazy32