Lady
A feminine name of English origin referring to a woman of noble rank.
Name Census estimates that about 1,044 living Americans carry the first name Lady. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lady today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lady births was 2016 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lady. 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 Lady with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 328,309 Americans
Peak year
2016
48 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,508
Tracked since 1884
Census
Lady in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,714 people with the first name Lady, which placed it at #2,352 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
#2,352
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,714 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lady
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lady is White at 40.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.6%) and Black (19.7%). 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 Lady 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 Lady at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.0% · 4,289
- Hispanic or Latino32.6% · 3,498
- Black or African American19.7% · 2,106
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 614
- Two or more races1.2% · 127
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 80
Popularity
Lady: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lady from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 248 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Lady remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lady 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 Lady during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ladys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, California recorded the most babies named Lady, while North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lady
The name Lady is of English origin and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English word "hlæfdige," which itself was a compound of "hlaf" meaning "loaf" and "dige" meaning "kneader." The term originally referred to the woman of the household who was responsible for kneading and baking bread.
Over time, the word "lady" evolved to refer to a woman of noble or gentle birth, especially the wife or daughter of a lord or baron. It became a courtesy title used to address women of high social rank or status.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the word "lady" in this sense can be found in the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf," which was likely composed between the 8th and 11th centuries. The poem refers to Queen Wealhtheow as a "lady" or "hlæfdige."
In the 12th century, the French word "dame" (meaning "lady" or "mistress") was introduced into English, and the two terms became somewhat interchangeable. The name Lady also appeared in various religious texts and biblical translations, often referring to the Virgin Mary or other holy women.
Throughout history, there have been numerous notable women who bore the name Lady or were referred to as such due to their noble status. One of the earliest and most famous was Lady Godiva, an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman known for her legendary ride through the streets of Coventry, England, to protest oppressive taxation.
Another prominent Lady was Lady Jane Grey, who briefly reigned as Queen of England for nine days in 1553 before being deposed and executed at the age of 16. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an 18th-century English aristocrat and writer, was also a significant figure in literature and travel writing.
In the 19th century, Lady Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Nelson, became a famous figure in British history and was celebrated for her beauty and influence. Lady Augusta Byron, the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron, was also a notable figure in her own right as a mathematician and computer programmer.
While the name Lady is not as commonly used as a first name today, it remains a prominent title and term of respect in English-speaking cultures, reflecting its long and storied history.
People
Lady + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lady 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
Lady: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lady?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,044 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lady 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 328,309 US residents.
Is Lady a common name?
We classify Lady as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,048 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lady most popular?
The single biggest year for Lady was 2016, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lady is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lady in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,714 people with the name Lady, or 3.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,352 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 Lady 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 Lady?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lady leans strongly female. 10,601 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 110 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Lady?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lady is White at 40.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.6%) and Black (19.7%). 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 Lady most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lady in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.0% (4,289 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 Lady in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lady a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lady 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 Lady still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lady 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 Lady 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 share the name Lady?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.