Leopold
A masculine German given name derived from Old High German meaning "brave people".
Name Census estimates that about 2,370 living Americans carry the first name Leopold. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Leopold today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leopold births was 2020 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leopold. 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 Leopold with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 144,622 Americans
Peak year
2020
120 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,082
Tracked since 1880
Census
Leopold in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,451 people with the first name Leopold, which placed it at #6,519 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
#6,519
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,451 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leopold
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leopold is White at 60.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (13.0%). 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 Leopold 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 Leopold at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.4% · 1,481
- Black or African American17.3% · 423
- Hispanic or Latino13.0% · 318
- Two or more races5.3% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 92
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 6
Popularity
Leopold: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leopold from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 808 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Leopold remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leopold 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 Leopold during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leopolds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Leopold, while Virginia, Utah, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leopold
The name Leopold has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old High German words "leud" meaning "people" and "bald" meaning "bold" or "brave". It was a popular name among the nobility and ruling classes in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The earliest known bearer of the name Leopold was Leopold I, Margrave of Austria, who lived from around 976 to 1011 CE. He was a member of the House of Babenberg and played a significant role in the expansion of the Margraviate of Austria.
Leopold became a widely used name among the ruling dynasties of Europe, particularly in the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. One of the most notable historical figures bearing this name was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, who reigned from 1658 to 1705. He was a key figure during the counter-reformation and the wars against the Ottoman Empire.
Another prominent Leopold was Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, who ruled from 1790 to 1792. He is best known for his opposition to the French Revolution and his efforts to maintain the power of the monarchy.
In the 19th century, Leopold I was the first King of the Belgians, reigning from 1831 to 1865. He played a crucial role in the formation of the Kingdom of Belgium after the Belgian Revolution.
Other notable figures with the name Leopold include Leopold Mozart, the father and principal teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who lived from 1719 to 1787, and Leopold Stokowski, the famous British-American conductor and music director, who lived from 1882 to 1977.
The name Leopold has also been used by various other European monarchs, nobles, and historical figures throughout the centuries, reflecting its enduring popularity among the aristocratic classes.
People
Leopold + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leopold 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
Leopold: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leopold?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,370 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leopold 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 144,622 US residents.
Is Leopold a common name?
We classify Leopold as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,965 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leopold most popular?
The single biggest year for Leopold was 2020, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leopold is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leopold in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,451 people with the name Leopold, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,519 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 Leopold 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 Leopold?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leopold appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,449 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 Leopold?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leopold is White at 60.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.3%) and Hispanic (13.0%). 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 Leopold most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leopold in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.4% (1,481 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 Leopold in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leopold a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Leopold 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 Leopold still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leopold 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 Leopold 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 the name Leopold?
See how many Americans are named Leopold on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.