Leon (given name)
Encyclopedia
Leon is a name of Greek origin, derived from the first known Leon, the King of Sparta, Leonidas I
Leonidas I
Leonidas I was a hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery...

 (490-480 BCE). In Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, Latin, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 Leon means "lion". Derived from the Greek λεων (leon) meaning "lion", this name was borne by a 5th-century BCE king of Sparta. During the Christian era Leon was merged with the Latin cognate Leo, with the result that the two forms are used interchangeably.

Leon (unaccented English, German, Russian version) or Léon (French version) or León (Spanish version) may refer to:
  • León Aillaud
    León Aillaud
    León Aillaud Barreiro was an Interim Governor of the Mexican State of Veracruz in the period from June 22, 1911, to December 12, 1911.- Early years :Born in the city and port of Veracruz, in the year 1880...

    , Governor of Veracruz México (1911)
  • Leon Bates (UAW Leader)
    Leon Bates (UAW Leader)
    Leon E. Bates Sr. was an American labor union leader with the United Auto Workers union from 1937 to 1964 when he retired, as an "International Representative" of the UAW...

     (1899–1972), U.S. union organizer
  • Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), Italian Renaissance poet, philosopher and architect
  • Leon Benois
    Leon Benois
    Leon Benois was a Russian architect. He was the son of architect Nicholas Benois, the brother of artists Alexandre Benois and Albert Benois, and the grandfather of the actor Sir Peter Ustinov...

     (1856–1928), Russian architect and grandfather of Sir Peter Ustinov
    Peter Ustinov
    Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

    .
  • Léon Bloy
    Léon Bloy
    Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...

    , French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet
  • Léon Blum
    Léon Blum
    André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...

    , Prime Minister of France in the 1930s and 40s, founder of the Popular Front
  • Léon Boëllmann
    Léon Boëllmann
    Léon Boëllmann was a French composer of Alsatian origin, known for a small number of compositions for organ. His best-known composition is Suite Gothique , still very much a staple of the organ repertoire, especially its dramatic concluding Toccata.-Biography:The son of a pharmacist, Boëllmann was...

    , 19th century French composer for the organ
  • Leon Bourgeois
    Léon Bourgeois
    -Biography:He was born in Paris, and was trained in law. After holding a subordinate office in the department of public works, he became successively prefect of the Tarn and the Haute-Garonne , and then returned to Paris to enter the ministry of the interior...

     French Prime Minister 1895-96, awarded 1920 Nobel Peace Prize
  • Léon Breitling
    Breitling
    Breitling is a luxury brand of Swiss watches produced by Breitling SA, a private company headquartered in Grenchen, Canton of Solothurn . The company exclusively offered Certified Chronometers in all models since 2000...

    , Swiss watchmaker and businessman
  • Lord Sir Leon Brittan (born 1939), English statesman, Baron of Spennithorne, Conservative MP 1974-89, EU Commissioner 1989-99
  • Leon Camier
    Leon Camier
    Leon Stuart Camier is a British motorcycle racer from Ashford, Kent, currently living in Bournemouth. He is the 2009 British Superbike Champion and previously won the 2005 British Supersport title. 2010 is his first season in the World Superbike series.-Personal life:Camier is the son of David and...

     (b. 1986), English motorcycle racer and 2009 British Superbike Champion
  • Leon Czolgosz
    Leon Czolgosz
    Leon Czolgosz was the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley.In the last few years of his life, he claimed to have been heavily influenced by anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.- Early life :...

    , American anarchist, assassin of U.S. President William McKinley
  • Léon Dierx
    Leon Dierx
    Léon Dierx was a French poet born in the island of La Réunion in 1838. He came to Paris to study at the Central School of Arts and Manufactures and subsequently settled there, taking up a post in the education office. He became a disciple of Leconte de Lisle and one of the most distinguished of...

    , French poet of the Parnasse movement
  • Léon Dion
    Léon Dion
    Léon Dion, OC, OQ was a Quebec political scientist.Dion was born in Saint-Arsène de Rivière-du-Loup. He founded the department of political science at Université Laval with Gérard Bergeron and Maurice Tremblay in 1954....

    , French-Canadian political scientist
  • Leon Durham
    Leon Durham
    Leon "Bull" Durham is a former first baseman and outfielder in Major League Baseball who played for 10 seasons. Durham played with the St. Louis Cardinals , Chicago Cubs , and Cincinnati Reds...

     (b. 1957) U.S. baseball player
  • Leon Edel
    Leon Edel
    Joseph Leon Edel was a North American literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel....

     (1907–97) U.S. literary critic and Pulitzer Prize winning biographer
  • Admiral Leon Edney U.S. Navy 1957-92, Vice-Chief Naval Operations
  • Léon Arthur Elchinger
    Leon Arthur Elchinger
    Léon-Arthur Elchinger was the Bishop of Strasbourg from 1967 to 1984- Diploma :* Ph.D in Theology and in Scholasticism philosophia* Bachelor of Arts- Career in the Order:...

    , French Catholic priest, Bishop of Strasbourg from 1967–84
  • León Febres Cordero
    León Febres Cordero
    León Esteban Febres-Cordero Ribadeneyra was President of Ecuador for a four-year term from 10 August 1984 to 10 August 1988...

    , president of Ecuador
    Ecuador
    Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

     (1984-1988).
  • León Felipe
    León Felipe
    León Felipe Camino Galicia was a Spanish poet.Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora, Spain, while his parents were on travel. His father was a notary public, and consequently very well off. His family established in Santander. Later on, Felipe would study pharmacy and start a business as a...

     (1884–1968), Spanish poet
  • Léon Foucault
    Léon Foucault
    Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was a French physicist best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation...

     (1819–1868), French physicist invented the Foucault pendulum, measured the speed of light, invented the gyroscope, and discovered eddy currents
  • Léon Gambetta
    Léon Gambetta
    Léon Gambetta was a French statesman prominent after the Franco-Prussian War.-Youth and education:He is said to have inherited his vigour and eloquence from his father, a Genovese grocer who had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie. At the age of fifteen, Gambetta lost the sight of his right eye...

    , Prime Minister of France 1881-82
  • Leon Garfield
    Leon Garfield
    Leon Garfield was a British writer of fiction. He is best known for his historical novels for children, though he also wrote for adults...

     (1921–96), English historical author, scripted the 1990s Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
    Shakespeare: the Animated Tales
    thumb|right|[[Banquo]] and [[Fleance]] from the "Macbeth" episode. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales comprised two six-part television series, first broadcast in 1992 and 1994...

    .
  • Léon Gaumont
    Léon Gaumont
    Léon Gaumont was a French inventor, engineer, and industrialist who was a pioneer of the motion picture industry....

    , French inventor and industrialist, pioneer of the motion picture industry, founder of the Gaumont Film Company
  • Léon Gérin
    Prix Léon-Gérin
    The Prix Léon-Gérin is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in one of the social sciences". It is named in honour of Léon Gérin.-Winners:-References:*...

    , French-Canadian scientist who gave his name to the Prix Léon-Gérin
  • León Gieco
    León Gieco
    Raúl Alberto Antonio Gieco, better known as León Gieco is a pop-folk music composer and interpreter. He is known for mixing popular folkloric genres with Argentine rock, and for lyrics with social and political connotations...

     (born 1951), Argentinian pop-folk music composer and interpreter
  • Leon Goossens
    Léon Goossens
    Léon Jean Goossens CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.He was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal College of Music...

     CBE (1897–1988), English orchestral oboist, regarded as the premiere oboe player in the world, Fellow of the Royal College of Music
  • Leon Haslam
    Leon Haslam
    Leon Lloyd Haslam is a motorcycle racer from England. He began racing at an early age and by the time he was in his late teens, he had raced in most of the significant British and international championships. Between 2005 and 2008 he was a regular front-runner in the British Superbike Championship...

     (born 1983), English motorcycle racer
  • Leon Jackson
    Leon Jackson
    Leon Jackson is a Scottish singer-songwriter. He won the fourth series of British talent show The X Factor in 2007. Following his win, Jackson was the main star of his on-web series entitled Leon's Life, which ran from 2007 until 2008...

    , British winner X-Factor 2007
  • Leon Jaworski
    Leon Jaworski
    Leonidas "Leon" Jaworski was the second Special Prosecutor during the Watergate Scandal...

     (1905–82), U.S. lawyer and Watergate Special Prosecutor
  • Leon Johnson (disambiguation), multiple people
  • Leon Krier
    Léon Krier
    Léon Krier is an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner. From the late 1970s onwards Krier has been one of the most influential neo-traditional architects and planners...

     (b. 1946), Luxembourg architect and advisor to HRH Charles, Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

     since 1988.
  • Leon Koudelak
    Leon Koudelak
    Leon Koudelak classical guitarist.Leon Koudelak has toured internationally in most parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas. He inspired famous composers such as Tom Pegram, Apostolos Paraskevas or Michael Buchrainer to write guitar music...

     (b. 1961), Krnov
    Krnov
    Krnov is an Upper Silesian city in the northeastern Czech Republic, in the Moravian-Silesian Region, the District of Bruntál, on the Opava River, near the Polish border....

    , Czech Republic
    Czech Republic
    The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

     Guitar Virtuoso.
  • Leon Lai
    Leon Lai
    Leon Lai is a Hong Kong-based actor and Cantopop singer. The media refer to Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings . He uses the stage name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming" which literally means "dawn."-Biography:...

     (b. 1966), Hong Kong actor and singer
  • Leon Lederman, American physicist and 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Léon Augustin Lhermitte
    Léon Augustin Lhermitte
    Léon Augustin Lhermitte was a French realist painter and etcher whose primary subject matter was of rural scenes depicting the peasant worker.He was born in Mont-Saint-Père...

     (1844–1925), French painter and etcher
  • Leon McKenzie
    Leon McKenzie
    Leon Mark McKenzie is an English professional footballer, who plays for Kettering Town.-Personal life:...

    , English football player
  • Leon of Modena
    Leon of Modena
    Leon Modena or Yehudah Aryeh Mi-modena was a Jewish scholar born in Venice of a notable French family that had migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France.-Life:...

     (1571–1648) Italian scholar born in Venice of a notable French family
  • Leon of Pella
    Leon of Pella
    Leon of Pella or Leo the Egyptian was a historian, priest and theologian. He wrote the book On the Gods in Egypt , based on an apocryphal letter of Alexander the Great to his mother Olympias...

     (330s BCE), Macedonian historian and theologian in Egypt during Alexander the Great's visit
  • General Leon Paraskevopoulos
    Leonidas Paraskevopoulos
    Leonidas Paraskevopoulos was a Greek military officer and politician.Paraskevopoulos was born in 1860 on the island of Kythnos to a family that hailed from Smyrna, Asia Minor...

     (1860-1936), Greek Army and politician. Fought in Greco-Turkish War, Balkan Wars, and WWI. President of Greek Senate.
  • Leon Panetta
    Leon Panetta
    Leon Edward Panetta is the 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency...

     (b. 1938), Director of the CIA and former White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton
  • Leon Papazoski (b. 1991), random guy from Macedonia
  • Léon Pétillon
    Léon Pétillon
    Léon Antoine Marie Pétillon was a Belgian civil servant and governor-general of Belgian Congo from 1 January 1952 until 12 July 1958.-References:* *...

    , Governor-General of the Belgian Congo from 1952–58
  • Léon Abel Provancher
    Léon Abel Provancher
    Léon Abel Provancher was a Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist. He studied at the College and Seminary of Nicolet, and was ordained 12 September 1844.-Life:He organized two pilgrimages to Jerusalem, one of which he conducted in person...

     (1820–92), French-Canadian Catholic parish priest and naturalist
  • Leon Punch
    Leon Punch
    Leon Ashton Punch was a New South Wales politician, Deputy Premier, and Minister of the Crown in the cabinets of Sir Robert Askin, Tom Lewis and Sir Eric Willis. From 1975 to 1976 he was the Deputy Premier of New South Wales...

     (1928–91), Australian politician and Deputy Premier for New South Wales
  • Leon Robinson
    Leon Robinson
    Leon Preston Robinson IV usually credited as simply Leon, is an American actor and singer, who began his professional career as an actor in 1981.-Personal life:...

     (b. 1962), U.S. actor and singer
  • Leon Rotman
    Leon Rotman
    Leon Rotman is a Romanian sprint canoer who competed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Life and sporting career:...

     (b. 1934), Romanian Olympic champion sprint canoer
  • Leon Russell
    Leon Russell
    Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

     (b. 1942) U.S. singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist
  • Léon Say
    Léon Say
    Jean-Baptiste Léon Say , French statesman and economist, was born in Paris.-Biography:The family was a most remarkable one. His grandfather Jean-Baptiste Say was a well-known economist. His brother Louis Auguste Say , director of a sugar refinery at Nantes, wrote several books against his theories...

     (1826–96) French economist and statesman
  • Léon Schlienger
    Noel Regney
    Noël Regney , World War II veteran and French songwriter, composed the Christmas standard "Do You Hear What I Hear?" with his then-wife Gloria Shayne Baker in 1962. Originally from Alsace, France, he moved to New York City and then eventually Connecticut, where he lived out the remainder of his life...

    , French WWII veteran and songwriter known as Noël Regney
  • Leon Schiller
    Leon Schiller
    Leon Schiller de Schildenfeld was a Polish theater and film director, critic and theoretician. He was also a composer and wrote theater and radio screenplays....

     de Schildenfeld (1887–1954) Austro-Hungarian theater and film director and composer, whose family was ennobled by Empress Maria Theresa in the 1750s.
  • Leon Schuster
    Leon Schuster
    Leon Ernest "Schuks" Schuster is a South African filmmaker, comedian, actor, presenter and singer.- Early life :Schuster was drawn to the filmmaking process at an early age...

     (b. 1951),, South African filmmaker, actor and musician
  • King Leon of Sparta
    Leonidas I
    Leonidas I was a hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery...

     (490-480 BCE) King of Sparta, known for the most famous last stand
    Last stand
    Last stand is a loose military term used to describe a body of troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds. The defensive force usually takes very heavy casualties or is completely destroyed, as happened in "Custer's Last Stand" at the Battle of Little Big HornBryan Perrett...

     in history with his 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae
    Battle of Thermopylae
    The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...

  • Leon Sperling
    Leon Sperling
    Leon Sperling was a Polish Olympic footballer.Sperling was born in Kraków. He was a football forward, playing on the left wing. Sperling represented Cracovia, the team he led in 1921, 1930, and 1932 to the Championship of Poland. He also played in 16 games for the Polish National Team, including...

     (1900-41), Polish soccer player
  • Léon Spilliaert
    Leon Spilliaert
    Léon Spilliaert was a Belgian symbolist painter and graphic artist.Spilliaert was born in Ostend, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, who was a perfumer, and Léonie . From childhood he displayed an interest in art and drawing. A prolific doodler and autodidact, he was...

     (1881–1946), Belgian painter
  • Leon Spinks
    Leon Spinks
    Leon Spinks is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world...

     (b. 1953), U.S. boxer
  • Leon Sullivan
    Leon Sullivan
    Leon Howard Sullivan was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African-Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, of leukemia at a Scottsdale,...

     (1922–2001), U.S. civil rights leader and social activist
  • Leon Taylor
    Leon Taylor
    Leon Taylor is a British former competitive diver.He was hyperactive as a child and his parents were advised to channel his energies and enthusiasm into sport. He was a swimmer and gymnast from the age of two and only took up competitive diving when he was eight...

     (born 1977), English swimmer and Olympic silver medalist
  • Léon Teisserenc de Bort
    Léon Teisserenc de Bort
    Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort was a French meteorologist who became famous for his discovery of the stratosphere...

     (1855–1913), French meteorologist who became famous for his discovery of the stratosphere
  • Léon Theremin
    Léon Theremin
    Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...

     (1896–1993), Russian and Soviet inventor
  • Leon Tolstoi (1828–1910) or Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Russian writer many consider the world's greatest novelist
  • Leon Trotsky
    Leon Trotsky
    Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

    , the adopted name of Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist Lev Bronshtein
  • Leon Uris
    Leon Uris
    Leon Marcus Uris was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.-Life:...

     (1924–2003), American novelist
  • Leon Underwood
    Leon Underwood
    Leon Underwood "The precursor of modern sculpture in Britain" was a noted British sculptor, painter, draughtsman and engraver as well as a writer and illustrator, scholar, teacher, philosopher and stained glass and furniture craftsman...

     (1890–1975), English sculptor, painter, writer and philosopher. Founded the magazine The Island in 1931.
  • King Leon V of Armenia (1374–75), described as "Leon V, King of Armenia" on his personal seal and "Leon de Lusignan the Fifth" on his cenotaph
  • Léon Vaudoyer
    Léon Vaudoyer
    Léon Vaudoyer was a French architect. He was one of the "romantic" Beaux-Arts architects influenced by Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte, along with his contemporaries Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste, and Louis Duc....

     (1803–72), French architect
  • Léon Walras
    Léon Walras
    Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras was a French mathematical economist associated with the creation of the general equilibrium theory.-Life and career:...

     (1834–1910), French economist
  • Leon Ware
    Leon Ware
    Leon Ware is a soul music singer, songwriter and producer. Best known for crafting the hit album, I Want You, originally recorded for Ware, until friend and Motown icon Marvin Gaye was assigned to the album in 1976...

     (b. 1940), U.S. singer, songwriter and producer.
  • Leon Williams
    Leon Norman Williams
    Leon Norman Williams , originally a barrister, was a noted British philatelic writer, who collaborated with his brother Maurice as "L. N. and M. Williams" until Maurice's death in 1976....

    (1914–99), English barrister and noted philatelic writer
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