Fun Facts About the Name Legion
- 370 babies named Legion: U.S. records list 370 babies given the name Legion from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Legion Mean?
Legion is the Latin noun legio (genitive legionis), which named a unit of the Roman army. It comes from the verb legere, "to choose, pick out, or gather," so the literal sense is a body of men selected or levied for service. The same Latin root lies behind English words such as elect, collect, and legend; it is not related to lex, "law," in any way that can be traced with confidence.
Classical Latin also used legio in a looser sense, "a great number, a multitude." That is the sense at work in the best-known use of the word as a name, in the Gospel of Mark, where a man tormented by many spirits answers, "My name is Legion, for we are many" (Mark 5:9; the parallel is Luke 8:30). The word there is the Latin loanword in Greek text, not a conventional personal name, and the speaker is describing a multitude rather than identifying himself in the ordinary way.
Legion Name History & Origins
In the Roman Republic a legio was originally the whole body of citizens called out for a campaign, and the word kept that flavor of a levy long after the army became professional. Under the Empire a legion was a standing infantry formation of several thousand men, identified by a number and often a nickname, such as Legio X Fretensis or Legio XII Fulminata. From this military sense Latin also developed the everyday meaning "a great many."
The word passed into English by way of Old French legion and directly from Latin, and English keeps both senses: a Roman legion and, figuratively, any large host. The Greek New Testament borrowed the Latin term as legiōn, which is why the possessed man in Mark and Luke gives his name in a Latin military word rather than a Greek or Hebrew one.
The scriptural passage is the main reason the word is familiar as a name. Christian writers long treated the episode as a picture of a divided soul or of overwhelming evil, and the phrase "their name is legion" entered English through the King James rendering of the verse. Beyond that biblical association, Legion appears occasionally as a given name in the modern English-speaking world and has been used for characters in fiction, including the Marvel Comics mutant Legion. It has no continuous history as a personal name in Latin, Greek, or the European naming traditions that grew out of them.
How Popular is the Name Legion?
Legion has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2021. Its best rank was #3,958 in 2021.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #5,513 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2024 | #7,508 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 2023 | #5,374 | 18 | 0.0011% |
| 2022 | #4,953 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2021 | #3,958 | 27 | 0.0015% |
| 2020 | #3,978 | 26 | 0.0015% |
| 2019 | #4,898 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2018 | #4,430 | 23 | 0.0013% |
| 2017 | #4,408 | 23 | 0.0012% |
| 2016 | #4,874 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2015 | #4,638 | 21 | 0.0011% |
| 2014 | #4,474 | 22 | 0.0011% |
| 2013 | #5,820 | 15 | 0.0008% |
| 2012 | #4,802 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2011 | #4,300 | 23 | 0.0012% |
| 2010 | #4,184 | 24 | 0.0013% |
| 2009 | #7,071 | 12 | 0.0006% |
| 2008 | #7,511 | 11 | 0.0005% |
| 2007 | #10,441 | 7 | 0.0003% |
| 2005 | #12,570 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2003 | #12,005 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Legion Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You always bring to completion anything you start. You are generous but like to see returns from your giving. You have an executive ability, you are a leader. You are moral, balanced, honest and intellectual, and you may attain spirituality. You are wise and practical with an appreciation of beauty. You always think before you act. You have an eventful, exciting life. You are versatile and have the ability to learn easily.
Position and social status is very important for you and you are always looking for way to improve your position in society. You have power and ability to chose your own destiny and achieve anything you want in life. You can expand in any direction according to your will and the set of values. You have passion for justice and belong to the position of authority. You have an inherent courage and endurance to accomplish "The Impossible Dream". With the power comes responsibility. You hold keys to the material world, but with this gift comes high spiritual responsibility to be fair and true to others. You are philosophical and mature, determined and intense with a desire to endure, often religious.
✦ Legion's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Legion's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.