(Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

Pope Robert Prevost joins 13 pontiffs and thousands of Americans in choosing the name “Leo”

The name Leo is already reaching record popularity.

5/9/25 8:35AM

America: land of the free and home of the pope.

Yesterday, the world said “Holy smokes!” as they watched white fumes rise from the Sistine Chapel chimney, indicating that after a two-day conclave, a new pope had been elected — and it wasn’t the bookies’ favorite, Pietro Parolin, whose odds of winning saw a huge upswing in the moments leading up to the announcement, nor was it anyone in the top five on most prediction market sites in the weeks before.

Indeed, the 133 cardinals sequestered in the chapel voted Robert Francis Prevost — a 69-year-old Chicagoan brought to the Vatican two years ago by Pope Francis — as the next supreme pontiff, making him the first American pope in history.

Christian name

From the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the 267th head of the (1.4 billion-strong) Catholic Church announced that he will be known as Leo XIV. While some postulate that the name was chosen to align the new pontiff with a history of social teaching from previous Pope Leos, Leo XIII served over 100 years ago. Still, the name has surged in popularity in recent years in the pope’s home nation.

As reported by Axios yesterday, the name “Leo” had initally dropped out of favor in US male baby names before seeing a massive surge in popularity at the turn of the millennium (perhaps because of a certain “Titanic” star), and rapidly moving up the rankings in the 2000s and ’10s (perhaps because of a certain soccer star). In fact, “Leo” was the 18th most popular boys’ name in the US in 2023, with 8,210 American Leos born in that year alone. But, at least to his brother, the new pope will still be “Rob” — the 89th most popular boys’ name.

Interestingly, the most popular papal name in history is still “John,” which has been used 23 times, followed by “Benedict” and “Gregory” in second place at 16 popes apiece.

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The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

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Drake whiffs on an expected No. 1 on Spotify

Drake started at the bottom and he’s here, but not quite at the top... of Spotify, at least.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June.

But, while he surpassed the late Michael Jackson and took up three slots on the Billboard album chart at once, his newly released songs haven’t quite cracked the popular music-streaming platform’s top charts, and market seem to think the moment has passed.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.