Pope Robert Prevost joins 13 pontiffs and thousands of Americans in choosing the name “Leo”
The name Leo is already reaching record popularity.
America: land of the free and home of the pope.
Yesterday, the world said “Holy smokes!” as they watched white fumes rise from the Sistine Chapel chimney, indicating that after a two-day conclave, a new pope had been elected — and it wasn’t the bookies’ favorite, Pietro Parolin, whose odds of winning saw a huge upswing in the moments leading up to the announcement, nor was it anyone in the top five on most prediction market sites in the weeks before.
Indeed, the 133 cardinals sequestered in the chapel voted Robert Francis Prevost — a 69-year-old Chicagoan brought to the Vatican two years ago by Pope Francis — as the next supreme pontiff, making him the first American pope in history.
Christian name
From the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the 267th head of the (1.4 billion-strong) Catholic Church announced that he will be known as Leo XIV. While some postulate that the name was chosen to align the new pontiff with a history of social teaching from previous Pope Leos, Leo XIII served over 100 years ago. Still, the name has surged in popularity in recent years in the pope’s home nation.
As reported by Axios yesterday, the name “Leo” had initally dropped out of favor in US male baby names before seeing a massive surge in popularity at the turn of the millennium (perhaps because of a certain “Titanic” star), and rapidly moving up the rankings in the 2000s and ’10s (perhaps because of a certain soccer star). In fact, “Leo” was the 18th most popular boys’ name in the US in 2023, with 8,210 American Leos born in that year alone. But, at least to his brother, the new pope will still be “Rob” — the 89th most popular boys’ name.
Interestingly, the most popular papal name in history is still “John,” which has been used 23 times, followed by “Benedict” and “Gregory” in second place at 16 popes apiece.
