Laura
A feminine name derived from the Latin word laurus meaning "laurel".
Name Census estimates that about 572,579 living Americans carry the first name Laura. It sits at #359 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Laura today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laura births was 1964 (19,008 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laura. 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 Laura with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Laura is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,579 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Laura have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
573K
~ 1 in 599 Americans
Peak year
1964
19,008 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2011 SSA rank
#359
Tracked since 1880
Census
Laura in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 679,854 people with the first name Laura, which placed it at #53 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
#53
National first-name rank
People counted
680K
679,854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
225.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laura
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laura is White at 74.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.3%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Laura 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 Laura at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.3% · 505,080
- Hispanic or Latino19.3% · 130,961
- Black or African American2.7% · 18,562
- Two or more races2.1% · 14,341
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 8,209
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2,701
Gender
Gender distribution for Laura
Out of the 803,566 babies given the name Laura since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Laura as a male name
- Ranked #13,523 in 2011
- 5 male births in 2011
- Peak: 1971 (67 births)
Laura as a female name
- Ranked #359 in 2024
- 868 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (18,967 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laura appears almost entirely female. Of the 679,856 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Laura: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laura from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 174,630 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
Laura 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 Laura during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 27 | 12,806 | 12,833 |
| 1890s | 53 | 16,433 | 16,486 |
| 1900s | 46 | 15,532 | 15,578 |
| 1910s | 97 | 30,549 | 30,646 |
| 1920s | 150 | 35,991 | 36,141 |
| 1930s | 147 | 25,093 | 25,240 |
| 1940s | 105 | 35,071 | 35,176 |
| 1950s | 217 | 95,527 | 95,744 |
| 1960s | 449 | 174,181 | 174,630 |
| 1970s | 454 | 118,207 | 118,661 |
| 1980s | 599 | 134,611 | 135,210 |
| 1990s | 192 | 67,251 | 67,443 |
| 2000s | 38 | 25,036 | 25,074 |
| 2010s | 5 | 10,440 | 10,445 |
| 2020s | 0 | 4,259 | 4,259 |
Geography
Where Lauras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Laura, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14,823 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Laura
The name Laura is derived from the Latin word "laurus", meaning "laurel plant" or "laurel tree". The laurel tree has been a symbol of victory, honor, and fame since ancient times, and its leaves were used to create crowns for triumphant leaders and heroes.
Laura's origins can be traced back to the Roman Empire, where it was initially used as a feminine form of the masculine name Laurus. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy and other parts of Europe influenced by Latin culture.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Laura can be found in the work of the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, also known as Petrarch (1304-1374). His famous collection of poems, "Il Canzoniere" (The Songbook), was dedicated to a woman named Laura, who was likely an idealized love interest rather than a real person.
Laura de Noves (circa 1310-1348), a French noblewoman, is often cited as a potential inspiration for Petrarch's Laura, though this connection remains speculative. Regardless, Petrarch's work played a significant role in popularizing the name throughout Europe.
Notable historical figures named Laura include:
1. Laura Cereta (1469-1499), an Italian Renaissance humanist and one of the first modern feminist writers.
2. Laura Bassi (1711-1778), an Italian physicist and the first woman to earn a professorship at a European university.
3. Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), an American writer best known for her classic children's book series "Little House on the Prairie".
4. Laura Riding (1901-1991), an American poet, critic, and writer who co-founded the Fugitive poetry movement.
5. Laura Esquivel (born 1950), a Mexican novelist best known for her book "Like Water for Chocolate".
Throughout history, the name Laura has been associated with qualities such as beauty, intelligence, and creativity, thanks to its connection with the laurel plant and its symbolism of honor and achievement.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Laura
People
Laura + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laura 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
Laura: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laura?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 572,579 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laura 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 599 US residents.
Is Laura a common name?
We classify Laura 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, 803,566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laura most popular?
The single biggest year for Laura was 1964, when 19,008 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laura is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laura in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 679,854 people with the name Laura, or 225.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #53 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 Laura 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 Laura?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laura appears almost entirely female. Of the 679,856 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Laura?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laura is White at 74.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.3%) and Black (2.7%). 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 Laura most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Laura in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.3% (505,080 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 Laura in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laura a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Laura 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 Laura still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laura 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 Laura 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 Americans are named Laura?
See how many Americans are named Laura on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.