Leo

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ORIGIN AND HISTORY

Leo is an English name from a Late Latin personal name (first vs. surname) meaning “lion.” It is likely Leo was popular and shared by a number of early Christian saints. Leo in this sense not only retained its popularity among Christians because of the religious leaders but was also reinforced as more of these Christians became religiously prominent. Leo also has Hebrew/Jewish origins as a derivative of Leon.

POPULARITY

According to the Social Security Administration, Leo has been one of the consistently most popular names in the United States. Never once falling off of the top SSA’s 1000 most popular names list, Leo has never fallen below 485th most popular in the past 100 years -- where it stood in 1995. Although Leo’s strongest ranking was in the first 40 years of the last century (where it ranked consistently in the top 50 to 100 from 1908 to 1937), Leo is undergoing something of a resurgence now. Recovering from the 400 range in the 1990s, Leo has now comfortably increased its rankings in the 200s during most of this century and reaching 238 in 2007 (see chart below).

Social Security Administration

FACTS

• Leo the Lion is the fifth and one of the most well known and popular constellations. It is also an astrological sign.^[1]
• There are at least 13 Pope Leos, spanning from 440 to 1903. The popularity of the name in the Christian religion is in large part due to all of these popes.

NAMESAKES

• Leo, IN Zip code(s): 46765
• Saint Leo, MN Zip code(s): 56286
• St. Leo, FL Population (1990): 1009
• St. Leo, MN Population (1990): 111
• LEO (acronym) Low Earth Orbit
• Leo is a general purpose computer systems language^[1]

FAMOUS PERSONS

• Leonardo di ser Piero DaVinci (1452 - 1519) was a Florentine (Italy) inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. He is believed to be one of the most brilliant and diverse thinkers among modern mankind. His contributions extend to art, anatomical discoveries, flying and other inventions and engineering developments.
• Leonardo DeCaprio (b. 1974) is a successful American motion picture actor. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards. His most successful movie was Titanic, the story based on the sinking of the British luxury liner in 1913. His character died.

Author: Mike Szimanski

NOTES