Old German lewo, "lion", and hard, "brave" — brave lion. Leonardo da Vinci was named for the town of Vinci, not a family surname.
Leonardo ranks 91st among American boys in 2025, with 3,789 born that year. Its best year was 2019, when 4,433 babies were given the name, ranking 86th. The typical living American called Leonardo is about 12 years old today. It is relatively most common in Nevada, where it accounts for 0.31% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.