Lajuana
An English feminine name derived from the Spanish name Juana.
Name Census estimates that about 1,309 living Americans carry the first name Lajuana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lajuana today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lajuana births was 1971 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lajuana. 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.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 261,844 Americans
Peak year
1971
61 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1994 SSA rank
#10,083
Tracked since 1923
Census
Lajuana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,376 people with the first name Lajuana, which placed it at #9,888 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
#9,888
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,376 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lajuana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lajuana is Black at 51.0%. The next largest groups are White (41.7%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Lajuana 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 Lajuana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.0% · 702
- White41.7% · 574
- Two or more races4.2% · 58
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Popularity
Lajuana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lajuana from the 1920s through to the 1990s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 468 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lajuana 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 Lajuana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lajuanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Lajuana, while Ohio, Arkansas, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lajuana
The name Lajuana is a feminine given name of Spanish origin, derived from the combination of the Spanish words "la" meaning "the" and "juana," which is the Spanish form of the name Joan or Joanna. The name Joanna has its roots in the Hebrew name "Yohanan," meaning "God is gracious."
Lajuana is believed to have originated in Spain during the Middle Ages, when the Spanish language was developing from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. The earliest recorded instances of the name date back to the 15th and 16th centuries in Spanish-speaking regions.
While there are no significant historical references or mentions of the name Lajuana in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is worth noting that the name Joanna, from which Lajuana is derived, appears in the New Testament of the Bible. Joanna was one of the women who followed Jesus and witnessed his resurrection.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Lajuana was Lajuana Wilcher (1920-2012), an American civil rights activist and lawyer from Texas. She was a prominent figure in the fight for desegregation and racial equality in the United States during the mid-20th century.
Another notable person with the name Lajuana was Lajuana Hansberry (1938-1991), an American singer and actress. She was the sister of the renowned playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and she had a successful career in her own right, performing in various musicals and plays on Broadway and in regional theaters.
Lajuana Barnett (1928-2011) was an American politician and educator who served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995. She was a trailblazer for women in politics and a vocal advocate for education reform.
Lajuana Wilcher (1903-1996), not to be confused with the civil rights activist mentioned earlier, was an American artist and sculptor. She is particularly known for her bronze sculptures depicting scenes from African American life and culture.
Finally, Lajuana Valdez (1932-2018) was a Mexican-American author and educator. She wrote several books and articles exploring the experiences of Mexican Americans, particularly in the Southwest United States, and advocated for greater representation and understanding of Latino/a culture in education.
People
Lajuana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lajuana 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
Lajuana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lajuana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lajuana 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 261,844 US residents.
Is Lajuana a common name?
We classify Lajuana as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,874 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lajuana most popular?
The single biggest year for Lajuana was 1971, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lajuana is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lajuana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,376 people with the name Lajuana, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,888 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 Lajuana 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 Lajuana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lajuana appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,377 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Lajuana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lajuana is Black at 51.0%. The next largest groups are White (41.7%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Lajuana most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lajuana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.0% (702 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 Lajuana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lajuana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lajuana 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 Lajuana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lajuana 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 Lajuana 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 called Lajuana?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.