Lacey
A feminine name derived from a French place name meaning "from Lassy".
Name Census estimates that about 51,974 living Americans carry the first name Lacey. It is a predominantly female name (97.3% of registrations). The average person named Lacey today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lacey births was 1984 (2,420 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lacey. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lacey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Lacey started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Although Lacey is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,458 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
52K
~ 1 in 6,595 Americans
Peak year
1984
2,420 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2021 SSA rank
#746
Tracked since 1886
Census
Lacey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 46,055 people with the first name Lacey, which placed it at #957 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#957
National first-name rank
People counted
46K
46,055 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lacey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lacey is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Lacey described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Lacey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.3% · 39,744
- Two or more races4.3% · 1,976
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 1,770
- Black or African American3.8% · 1,740
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 545
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 280
Gender
Gender distribution for Lacey
Lacey leans heavily female at 97.3% of total registrations, but 1,458 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lacey as a male name
- Ranked #13,253 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1949 (27 births)
Lacey as a female name
- Ranked #746 in 2024
- 376 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1984 (2,399 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lacey leans strongly female. 45,403 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 655 male bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Lacey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lacey from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 20,976 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lacey by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lacey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Laceys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Lacey, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,007 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lacey
The name Lacey has its origins in the Old French word "lacier," which means "to ensnare" or "to catch in a noose." This word evolved from the Latin word "laqueus," meaning "noose" or "snare." The name Lacey is thought to have been derived from a place name or a surname denoting someone who lived near a thicket or a snare.
In the Middle Ages, the name Lacey was primarily used as a surname in England, particularly in areas like Wiltshire and Somerset. It was not until the 16th century that Lacey began to be used as a given name, predominantly for girls.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lacey is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is spelled as "Laci." This record mentions a landowner named Ilbert de Laci, who held estates in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Lacey. One of the most famous was Lacey Randolph (1885-1966), an American educator and the first African American woman to receive a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago.
Another notable Lacey was Lacey Hearn (1881-1963), an American blues singer and songwriter who was influential in the development of the Texas blues genre. Her recordings from the 1920s and 1930s are considered some of the earliest examples of blues music.
In literature, Lacey is the name of a character in Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice," published in 1813. Although a minor character, Lacey is mentioned as the daughter of a wealthy family from the neighborhood.
In the realm of sports, Lacey Baker (born 1991) is an American professional skateboarder who has won multiple X Games medals and is considered one of the most influential female skateboarders of her generation.
Another notable Lacey is Lacey Sturm (born 1981), an American singer-songwriter and co-founder of the rock band Flyleaf. Her powerful vocals and lyrics exploring themes of faith and personal struggles have resonated with audiences worldwide.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lacey
People
Lacey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lacey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lacey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lacey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 51,974 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lacey going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 6,595 US residents.
Is Lacey a common name?
We classify Lacey as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 54,857 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lacey most popular?
The single biggest year for Lacey was 1984, when 2,420 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lacey is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lacey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 46,055 people with the name Lacey, or 15.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #957 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Lacey in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Lacey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lacey leans strongly female. 45,403 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 655 male bearers (1.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Lacey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lacey is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Lacey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lacey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.3% (39,744 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Lacey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lacey a female name?
Yes, 97.3% of people registered as Lacey in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Lacey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lacey in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Lacey can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Lacey?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.