Leo

Leo is the 4,233rd most common surname in the United States, shared by 8,092 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 36,900.

By the numbers

People: 8,092
Rank: 4,233rd
How common: 1 in 36,900
Per 100,000: 2.7

Where the name comes from

From Latin leō (“lion”), /, from sux 𒌨𒄞𒆷 (“lion; name of constellation”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Leo described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 70.3%
Hispanic or Latino 10.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 9.9%
Black, not Hispanic 5.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Leo

Melissa Leo (born 1960)American actress
Leonardo Leo (1694–1744)Italian composer
Francis Leo (born 1971)Canadian Catholic prelate
Fernando Di Leo (1932–2003)Italian film director
Edoardo Leo (born 1972)Italian actor and screenwriter
Leo (born 1990)South Korean singer, songwriter and actor
Friedrich Leo (1851–1914)German classical philologist
Brother Leo (1195–1271)disciple of Francis of Assisi

People named Leo with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Leo

Also a first name

Leo has been given to 262,124 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2022. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.