Lamira
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly Arabic, meaning "beautiful princess".
Name Census estimates that about 109 living Americans carry the first name Lamira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lamira today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lamira births was 2010 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lamira. 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
109
~ 1 in 3,144,535 Americans
Peak year
2010
10 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,827
Tracked since 1991
Census
Lamira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 143 people with the first name Lamira, which placed it at #46,519 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
#46,519
National first-name rank
People counted
143
143 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lamira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lamira is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.8%) and Hispanic (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 Lamira 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 Lamira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.6% · 111
- White9.8% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 6
- Two or more races4.2% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.8% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 2
Popularity
Lamira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lamira from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 39 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lamira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lamira 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 Lamira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lamira
The name Lamira has its origins in the ancient Sumerian culture of Mesopotamia, which flourished around 3500-3000 BCE. It is believed to be derived from the Sumerian words "lam" meaning "to glow" and "mira" meaning "jewel" or "precious stone". Together, the name can be interpreted as "shining jewel" or "glowing gem".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lamira can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem dating back to the third millennium BCE. In the epic, Lamira is mentioned as the name of a priestess in the city of Uruk.
During the reign of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BCE), the name Lamira gained popularity among the nobility and upper classes. It is recorded that a Babylonian princess named Lamira was married to the Persian king Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BCE.
In ancient Greek mythology, Lamira was the name of one of the Oceanids, the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She was associated with the bountiful waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lamira:
1. Lamira of Corinth (c. 550 BCE), a renowned Greek poet and lyricist who composed works for the ancient Isthmian Games.
2. Lamira ibn al-Husayn (960-1035), an influential Arab mathematician and astronomer from Baghdad who made significant contributions to the development of spherical trigonometry.
3. Lamira Ghesquière (1532-1603), a Flemish painter and one of the first professional female artists of the Dutch Renaissance.
4. Lamira Pörksen (1853-1920), a German feminist and activist who campaigned for women's suffrage and equal rights in the late 19th century.
5. Lamira Kovalenko (1909-1996), a Ukrainian Soviet writer and journalist who documented the experiences of women soldiers during World War II in her acclaimed novel "The Unwomanly Face of War".
While the name Lamira has its roots in ancient Mesopotamian and Greek cultures, it has been used across various civilizations throughout history, reflecting its enduring appeal and the diverse cultural influences that have shaped its meaning and significance over time.
People
Lamira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lamira 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
Lamira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lamira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 109 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lamira 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 3,144,535 US residents.
Is Lamira a common name?
We classify Lamira as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 110 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lamira most popular?
The single biggest year for Lamira was 2010, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lamira is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lamira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 143 people with the name Lamira, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,519 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 Lamira 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 Lamira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lamira leans strongly female. 136 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 2 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 Lamira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lamira is Black at 77.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.8%) and Hispanic (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 Lamira most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lamira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (111 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 Lamira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lamira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lamira 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 Lamira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lamira 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 Lamira 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 Lamira?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.