Feminine form of Leander, from Greek 'leon' (lion) and 'aner' (man), meaning 'lioness of the people.'
Leandra is the feminine form of Leander, from the ancient Greek "Leandros" — a compound of "leon" (lion) and "aner/andros" (man), making it a name that means, quite literally, "lion-man" or "lionhearted." The masculine form Leander was immortalized in one of antiquity's most heartbreaking love stories: Leander of Abydos swam the Hellespont each night to meet the priestess Hero in Sestos, guided by her lamp, until a storm extinguished the light and he drowned in the crossing. Hero, seeing his body washed ashore, threw herself into the sea.
Christopher Marlowe retold the myth in verse, and Lord Byron famously swam the Hellespont himself in 1810 in tribute to the legend. Leandra itself — the feminine adaptation — has been used in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Latin America for centuries, often in honor of Saint Leander of Seville, a 6th-century Archbishop who converted the Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism and was the elder brother of the encyclopedist Saint Isidore. In the Iberian world, the name thus carries both the classical romance of the Greek myth and the gravitas of early Christian scholarship — a pairing of heart and mind.
In English-speaking countries Leandra has always been a rarity, which is a great part of its appeal. It has the strong, leonine opening consonant, the flowing Latin ending, and an easy nickname path through "Lea" or "Andra." It is a name for parents who love classical depth but want something that doesn't feel buried under overuse.