Leon (given name)

Leon (Ancient Greek: λέων, romanized: léon; leōn) is a first name of Greek origin, meaning "lion". It gave rise to similar names in other languages, including the Latin Leo, French Lyon or Léon, Irish Leon, Spanish León, Armenian Levon / Լևոն or Georgian Levan / ლევან.

In Greek mythology, Leon was a giant killed by Heracles. One of the oldest attested historical figures to bear this name was Leon of Sparta, a 6th-century BCE king of Sparta. During the Christian era, the name Leon was merged with the Latin cognate Leo, with the result that the two forms are used interchangeably.[1]

A similar Greek name, Leonidas, means "son of a lion". Leonidas I, king of Sparta, was a famous bearer of that name.

The Ancient Greek word λέων ultimately comes from Proto-Semitic *labiʾ-, which is not Indo-European.

People

Leon (English, German, Dutch, Russian version), Léon (French version), León (Spanish version) may refer to:

Fictional characters

See also

References

  1. ^ Withycombe, E. G. (1945). The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.