Okay, so I absolutely love the nn [name]Leo[/name] (and popularity doesn’t bother me too much, especially with nicknames), but I don’t completely love [name]Leonardo[/name] or [name]Leonard[/name]. Could [name]Leo[/name] be a legitimate nn for [name]Lionel[/name]? I’m not 100% sure I love [name]Lionel[/name] either, but it was my grandfather’s middle name and it would honor him.
[name]One[/name] of my favorite things to do with my name lists is come up with names for possible twins, even though once I do decide to have kids, there’s no extra chance I will end up with twins, I’ve just always loved the idea. Anyway, my current favorite twin boy names are [name]Alexander[/name] nn [name]Lex[/name] and the nn [name]Leo[/name], but with no given name pinned down. And I definitely want all of my children to have longer names with the possibility of a nn. Does it matter if the nicknames are matchy, like [name]Lex[/name] and [name]Leo[/name], if the given names are longer and aren’t matchy (like [name]Alexander[/name] and [name]Lionel[/name] or [name]Alexander[/name] and [name]Leonardo[/name])?
Hopefully that all made sense! 
It could work if you make it work, and obviously you’d have to put it into place and work as making the nickname stick because it isn’t an obvious nickname for [name]Lionel[/name]. I think it depends on the how you are pronouncing [name]Lionel[/name] - [name]Ly[/name]-null or [name]Lee[/name]-oh-null, the latter I’ve heard in Spain and South [name]America[/name] and the latter makes much more sense to have [name]Leo[/name] as a nickname.
I think [name]Lex[/name] is definitely the best nickname for [name]Alexander[/name], that or [name]Xander[/name], both are cool and quirky.
[name]Alexander[/name] & [name]Leonardo[/name] would be my preferred, with the nn’s [name]Lex[/name] & [name]Leo[/name].
On this site a few members are considering names like [name]Elliot[/name], [name]Bailey[/name] and [name]Leland[/name] for the nickname [name]Leo[/name] so I guess [name]Lionel[/name] nn [name]Leo[/name] could work if you try hard enough.
Thanks! My family pronounces is “Lie-oh-null” though. It was just a thought. I do like [name]Alexander[/name] and [name]Leonardo[/name], but whenever I say [name]Leonardo[/name] out loud to myself, it sounds too Italian to me, and I’m not Italian at all. Does that matter? I also think a lot of celebrities’ names sound better when you say their first and last name together, as most people do when talking about them, and [name]Leonardo[/name] DiCaprio is one of them.