Larry
A masculine given name of Germanic origin meaning "victor's crown".
Name Census estimates that about 547,387 living Americans carry the first name Larry. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Larry today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Larry births was 1947 (35,026 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Larry. 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 Larry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Larry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,560 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Larry is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Larrys were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Larry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
547K
~ 1 in 626 Americans
Peak year
1947
35,026 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,068
Tracked since 1880
Census
Larry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 512,453 people with the first name Larry, which placed it at #83 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
#83
National first-name rank
People counted
512K
512,453 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
169.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Larry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Larry is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Larry 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 Larry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.0% · 394,454
- Black or African American15.6% · 79,799
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 17,027
- Two or more races2.3% · 11,546
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 5,448
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4,179
Gender
Gender distribution for Larry
Out of the 810,934 babies given the name Larry since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Larry as a male name
- Ranked #1,068 in 2024
- 204 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (34,945 births)
Larry as a female name
- Ranked #10,096 in 1995
- 8 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1955 (117 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Larry appears almost entirely male. Of the 512,456 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Larry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Larry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 256,654 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Larry 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 Larry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Larrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Larry, while Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15,785 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Larry
The name Larry is an English variant of the ancient Germanic name Laurentius, derived from the Latin name Laurentius meaning "from Laurentum" - a city located near ancient Rome. The name Laurentius itself stems from the Latin laurus, meaning "laurel".
In ancient Rome, laurel wreaths were symbols of victory and honor. As such, the name Laurentius was often bestowed upon Roman citizens who achieved great military or civic accomplishments. The cult of St. Lawrence, one of the most venerated Roman martyrs, further popularized the name across Europe during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Larry can be traced back to the 12th century, when an Englishman named Larry of Canterbury was mentioned in historical records from 1181. In medieval England, the name was sometimes spelled as Lari, Larri, or Layry.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Larry. One of the most famous was Larry the Deacon (c. 530-601), a Christian martyr and deacon of the Church in Rome who was executed during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Valerian.
Another historically significant Larry was Larry of Argyll (c. 1335-1378), a Scottish knight and nobleman who played a crucial role in the Wars of Scottish Independence against England in the 14th century.
During the Renaissance, Larry Gozzadini (1406-1468) was an Italian jurist and diplomat who served as a papal ambassador and played a key role in the Council of Florence in the 15th century.
In more recent times, Larry King (1933-2021) was an American television and radio host who conducted over 60,000 interviews throughout his illustrious broadcasting career spanning six decades.
Larry Bird (born 1956) is a former professional basketball player who led the Boston Celtics to three NBA championship titles and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Larry
People
Larry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Larry 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
Larry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Larry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 547,387 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Larry 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 626 US residents.
Is Larry a common name?
We classify Larry as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 810,934 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Larry most popular?
The single biggest year for Larry was 1947, when 35,026 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Larry is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Larry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 512,453 people with the name Larry, or 169.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #83 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 Larry 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 Larry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Larry appears almost entirely male. Of the 512,456 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Larry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Larry is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Larry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Larry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (394,454 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 Larry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Larry a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Larry in the SSA data are male. 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 Larry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Larry 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 Larry 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 have the name Larry?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.