Lionel

The name Lionel comes from Latin leonellus, meaning "little lion." Lionel was used as a given name in the Middle Ages and is one possible source of surnames such as Lyall, or Lyell. It has remained in use ever since the Middle Ages; never being used more than infrequently but never falling completely out of use either. Its use has declined even more in the past few decades though, and of late, Lionel has fallen out of the top 1000 names in the U.S. Famous Lionels include actor Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954) and singer Lionel Richie. Many may also remember Lionel as George and Louise Jefferson's son on the tv series The Jeffersons. Why has Lionel fallen so completely out of fashion of late? There may be bad associations with the name that I'm not aware of, but since I'm not aware of any, I'd have to guess that it's some combination of the following reasons: Lionel sounds a bit old-fashioned at the moment, it doesn't have much versatility when it comes to nicknames, and so many "new" names have crowded into the name arena in the past decades as parents (in the U.S. at least) have become more daring, that there simply isn't room for it. Because of the meaning, Lionel makes a great name for a male cat, but if you choose to give the name to your new baby, I'd recommend choosing a strong versatile second name to accompany it, just to give your child some options in the event he hates the name.