Leoma
Feminine name of Greek origin meaning "tawny lioness".
Name Census estimates that about 159 living Americans carry the first name Leoma. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Leoma today is around 81 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leoma births was 1920 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leoma. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Leoma is about 81 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Leomas were born before 1955.
People living today
159
~ 1 in 2,155,688 Americans
Peak year
1920
43 babies that year
Average age
81
years old
1967 SSA rank
#6,450
Tracked since 1892
Census
Leoma in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 355 people with the first name Leoma, which placed it at #26,287 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
#26,287
National first-name rank
People counted
355
355 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leoma
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leoma is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (2.8%). 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 Leoma 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 Leoma at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.3% · 239
- Black or African American23.4% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.8% · 10
- Two or more races2.8% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 4
Popularity
Leoma: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leoma from the 1890s through to the 1960s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 352 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leoma 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 Leoma during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leomas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Leoma, while Tennessee, Pennsylvania, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leoma
The given name Leoma is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "leo" meaning lion and "ma" meaning maiden or woman. It dates back to the late Middle Ages, around the 14th or 15th century, when it was used as a feminine name in parts of England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Leoma can be found in the parish records of St. Mary's Church in Bristol, England, where a Leoma Winterbourne was christened in 1479. Another early record comes from the village of Adderbury in Oxfordshire, where a Leoma Wylde was mentioned in a land deed from 1512.
The name Leoma gained some popularity in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, particularly among the English gentry and nobility. One notable figure from this period was Leoma Devereux, born in 1570, who was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I and a distant cousin of the famous Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
In the 18th century, the name Leoma was used occasionally by Puritan families in the American colonies. One example is Leoma Prudence Whittier, born in 1723 in Massachusetts, who was a distant relative of the poet John Greenleaf Whittier.
Another notable figure with the name Leoma was Leoma Violet Jessop, born in 1897 in England. She was a pioneering British aviator and one of the first women to earn a commercial pilot's license in the early days of aviation.
During the 19th century, the name Leoma saw some use among English and American families, though it remained relatively uncommon. One interesting example is Leoma Pearce, born in 1843 in Ohio, who became a renowned naturalist and author, publishing several books on the natural history of the American Midwest.
While not as widely used as some other English names, Leoma has endured over several centuries and has been borne by a variety of individuals, from nobility and gentry to Puritan colonists, aviators, and naturalists.
People
Leoma + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leoma 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
Leoma: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leoma?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 159 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leoma 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 2,155,688 US residents.
Is Leoma a common name?
We classify Leoma as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,196 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leoma most popular?
The single biggest year for Leoma was 1920, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leoma is about 81 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leoma in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 355 people with the name Leoma, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,287 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 Leoma 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 Leoma?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leoma leans strongly female. 348 people counted with this name were female (97.2%), compared with 10 male bearers (2.8%). 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 Leoma?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leoma is White at 67.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.4%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (2.8%). 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 Leoma most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leoma in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.3% (239 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 Leoma in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leoma a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leoma 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 Leoma still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leoma 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 Leoma 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 have Leoma as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.