Dog Names That Start With L

The eternal fiancee of Superman turned sweet gray-haired lady who's always available to babysit her grandkids turned....hot new baby name?

Leonard is the name of several saints, including one who is the patron saint of childhood, and another medieval saint who's the patron of prisoners--known for freeing prisoners he deemed worthy of God. Popular from 1900 to 1930, Leonard is perhaps more notable for those who dropped the name when they entered show biz than those who kept it: former Leonards include Roy Rogers and Tony Randall. Two musical Leonards did keep their names though--composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein and poet-singer Leonard Cohen. Leonard Woolf was the husband and publisher of great English novellist Virginia Woolf. These days, modern parents tend to prefer Leo or the romantic Italian Leonardo, especially since Leonard does not get pronounced with the trendy "Leo" sound.

This is an alternative to Laura or Lauren made romantic by Dr Zhivago, and badass by video-game heroine Lara Croft.

For centuries this name was associated primarily with the towering figure of Italian Renaissance painter-scientist-inventor Leonardo da Vinci, and was scarcely used outside the Latin culture.

Sweet Lorraine might just be old enough to be ripe for reconsideration. This French place name has moved in and out of fashion in the few hundred years it's been used as a girls' first name, somewhat influenced by the alternative name of Joan of Arc--Saint Joan of Lorraine. It was quite popular from the 1920s to the fifties, but has pretty much been in limbo since then.

One of those names that's suddenly on the map because of a celebrity's influence, Leighton Meester of the TV show Gossip Girl. She pronounces it LAY-ton but some will intuitively say LEE-ton.

Lionel is one leonine name that hasn't taken off as cousins Leo and Leonardo have, though it did reenter the Top 1000 in 2010 after several years away; it was at its highest point in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Hungarian classic Laszlo, with its zippy 'z' middle and energetic 'o' ending, has become something of a hipster option, beginning to be considered by cutting-edge parents.

A growing number of high-profile (and other) parents are choosing to honor their musical idols, such as Hendrix, Presley, Jagger, and now Lennon.

Linda will live forever in baby name history for toppling Mary from its four hundred year reign as Number 1. Queen of Names in 1947, Linda has fallen even further in favor than Mary today.

Lucifer is the name of the archangel cast into hell -- theologians disagree on whether he and Satan are separate beings -- and as such has long been on the forbidden list for religious parents. Still banned in New Zealand, Lucifer is occasionally used in the contemporary U.S.: Six boys were given the name in the most recent year counted.

Though the fuller Lancelot has for the most part been shunned as a 'too-much-name' name, the short form Lance has been consistently in or around the Top 500 since 1938, climbing as high as Number 76 in 1970. It was used as a character name by Walter Scott as far back as 1823. Lance is also the name of a medieval weapon, making this name all boy.

This aristocratic, somewhat formal Germanic route to the popular Leo is a royal name: Queen Victoria used it to honor a favorite uncle, King Leopold of Belgium. Though Leopold sounds as if it might be a leonine name, it's not really a relative of such choices as Leon, and Leonard.

Could Lowen be the next Owen? This Cornish name certainly has the right sounds to be an American hit, and is rising dramatically for both boys and girls.

Celebrated in song—the rock 'n' roll classic "Louie, Louie"—this is a gregarious, friendly spelling of Louis not often used as a full first name. It reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015. It's a highly popular choice in England and Wales.

Lula is one of the livelier nickname-names with the fashionable double-L sound: It joins Lulu, Lila, Lily, and Lou among the trendiest names today. Lula might be short for Talula and sisters or for Lucy or Louise, or may stand on its own two adorable feet. Lula was actually a Top 50 name in the late 1880's and continued in the Top 100 for a couple of decades more.

Lettie, also spelled Letty, is a nickname name not heard in over a century, giving it the patina of a treasured antique. Lettie's style currency is rising with the trend for old-fashioned, down-to-earth nicknames. Lettie is right in step with Lottie, Hettie, Hattie, Josie, and Maisie.

This spelling variation of Leya was popularized by the Star Wars films, but is still firmly in the US Top 1000 many years later. This spelling is also probably preferred as it is clearer in pronunciation to the original Hindi name, Leya (which sometime gets pronounced Lee-ah).

Leonidas is an ancient name that has started rising again along with centuries-old names such as Augustus and Cato. The original Leonidas was the most famous of Sparta's warriors, sacrificing his life at the Battle of Thermopylae; there is also a saint Leonidas.

Lou, all by itself, is become fashionable for girls, which usually makes a name LESS fashionable for boys. But Lou, like Bill or Jim, is rarely used on its own for boys anyway. (You wouldn't name a boy Frederick Lou the way that girls are named Mary Lou or, in the case of Keri Russell's new baby, Willa Lou.) Long form Louis is getting cool again and, with the Lewis spelling, is the Number 2 name in Scotland.