Leodan
From Old English elements meaning "lion" and "brave, bold".
Name Census estimates that about 248 living Americans carry the first name Leodan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Leodan today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leodan births was 2007 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leodan. 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.
People living today
248
~ 1 in 1,382,074 Americans
Peak year
2007
14 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,676
Tracked since 1991
Census
Leodan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 530 people with the first name Leodan, which placed it at #19,787 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
#19,787
National first-name rank
People counted
530
530 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leodan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leodan is Hispanic at 97.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Leodan 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 Leodan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.0% · 514
- White2.3% · 12
- Black or African American0.4% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Leodan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leodan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 96 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Leodan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leodan 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 Leodan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leodan
The name Leodan has its origins in Old English, a Germanic language spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland from the 5th to the 11th centuries. It is derived from the elements "lēod" meaning "people" and "an" meaning "one" or "man." Together, the name Leodan can be interpreted to mean "leader of the people" or "chief of the people."
This name was prevalent during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, which lasted from around the 5th to the 11th centuries. It was a common name among the ruling classes and nobility, reflecting the importance of leadership and authority in that society.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Leodan can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. In the entry for the year 675, a Leodan is mentioned as the reeve (an administrative official) of the town of Taunton in Somerset.
In the 8th century, a Leodan is recorded as the abbot of the monastery at Malmesbury in Wiltshire. This Leodan was a renowned scholar and writer, known for his work on the life of the early medieval saint Aldhelm.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Leodan was Leodan of Glastonbury, a 10th-century monk and scholar at the Abbey of Glastonbury in Somerset. He is credited with writing a hagiography (a biography of a saint) of Saint Dunstan, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Another Leodan of note was a 12th-century abbot of the Benedictine abbey at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. He was involved in a dispute with the townspeople of Bury St Edmunds over the abbey's rights and privileges, which ultimately led to the creation of the town's charter.
In the 13th century, a Leodan is recorded as the Bishop of St Andrews in Scotland from 1241 to 1252. He played a significant role in the church's affairs during a turbulent period in Scottish history.
As the Anglo-Saxon period gave way to the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century, the name Leodan gradually fell out of common usage. However, its legacy as a name associated with leadership and authority has endured throughout the centuries.
People
Leodan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leodan 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
Leodan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leodan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 248 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leodan 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 1,382,074 US residents.
Is Leodan a common name?
We classify Leodan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 251 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leodan most popular?
The single biggest year for Leodan was 2007, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leodan is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leodan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 530 people with the name Leodan, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,787 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 Leodan 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 Leodan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leodan appears almost entirely male. Of the 532 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Leodan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leodan is Hispanic at 97.0%. The next largest groups are White (2.3%) and Black (0.4%). 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 Leodan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Leodan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.0% (514 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 Leodan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leodan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leodan in the SSA data are male. 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 Leodan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leodan 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 Leodan 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 common is the name Leodan?
See how many Americans are named Leodan on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.