Leandra
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "brave as a lioness".
Name Census estimates that about 6,467 living Americans carry the first name Leandra. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Leandra today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leandra births was 1989 (275 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leandra. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leandra with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 53,001 Americans
Peak year
1989
275 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
1991 SSA rank
#3,919
Tracked since 1913
Census
Leandra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,461 people with the first name Leandra, which placed it at #3,301 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,301
National first-name rank
People counted
6.5K
6,461 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
37.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leandra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leandra is White at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.5%) and Black (19.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Leandra described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Leandra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White37.4% · 2,416
- Hispanic or Latino33.5% · 2,163
- Black or African American19.0% · 1,227
- Two or more races4.9% · 314
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 215
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 126
Gender
Gender distribution for Leandra
Out of the 7,025 babies given the name Leandra since 1880, 99.5% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Leandra as a male name
- Ranked #5,768 in 1991
- 9 male births in 1991
- Peak: 1991 (9 births)
Leandra as a female name
- Ranked #3,919 in 2024
- 38 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (269 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leandra leans strongly female. 6,379 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 83 male bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Leandra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leandra from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 2,063 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leandra by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Leandra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leandras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Leandra, while West Virginia, Wisconsin, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 126 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leandra
The name Leandra has its origins in the Greek language, and it is believed to have emerged during the classical period of ancient Greece. The name is derived from the Greek word "leander," which means "lion man" or "lion-like."
In Greek mythology, Leander was a young man from Abydos who fell in love with Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite who lived in Sestos, across the Hellespont strait. Every night, Leander would swim across the strait to meet his beloved Hero, guided by a lamp she lit atop a tower. Tragically, one stormy night, the lamp was extinguished, and Leander lost his way and drowned.
The earliest recorded use of the name Leandra can be traced back to ancient Greek literature, where it was occasionally used as a feminine variant of the masculine name Leander. However, it was not until the Middle Ages that the name gained more widespread popularity, particularly in regions with strong Greek cultural influences, such as parts of Italy and Spain.
One of the earliest notable historical figures bearing the name Leandra was Leandra of Valencia, a Spanish noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She is known for her philanthropy and patronage of the arts, and she played a significant role in the cultural and intellectual life of Valencia during that time.
Another famous Leandra was Leandra Frescobaldi, an Italian Renaissance poet who lived in Florence during the 15th century. She was renowned for her lyrical and romantic poetry, which celebrated love and beauty.
In the 17th century, Leandra de Osorio y Guzmán was a Spanish noble and courtier who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Mariana of Austria, the second wife of King Philip IV of Spain.
Moving forward to the 19th century, Leandra Ramm was a German artist and painter known for her delicate and detailed portraiture. She was particularly celebrated for her depictions of children and domestic scenes.
Finally, in the 20th century, Leandra Medine was an American fashion blogger and author. She founded the popular fashion blog "Man Repeller" in 2010, which aimed to celebrate and embrace unconventional and avant-garde fashion choices. Her blog gained a significant following and helped popularize the name Leandra in recent decades.
People
Leandra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leandra as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leandra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leandra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,467 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leandra going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 53,001 US residents.
Is Leandra a common name?
We classify Leandra as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,025 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leandra most popular?
The single biggest year for Leandra was 1989, when 275 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leandra is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leandra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,461 people with the name Leandra, or 2.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,301 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Leandra in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Leandra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leandra leans strongly female. 6,379 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 83 male bearers (1.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Leandra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leandra is White at 37.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (33.5%) and Black (19.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Leandra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leandra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 37.4% (2,416 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Leandra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leandra a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Leandra in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Leandra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leandra in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Leandra can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Leandra?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Leandra at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.