Leonard comes from the Germanic Leonhard, which joins levon, "lion", with hart, "brave" or "hardy", and means "brave lion". Saint Leonard of Noblac, a sixth-century French hermit, made it a common medieval name, and in America it belongs to the composer Leonard Bernstein and the singer Leonard Cohen. Leonard was number 508 in the United States in 2000, has hovered between 599 and 707 for the last decade and ranks 637 in 2025.