Laurel
An honor and laurel wreath representing triumph and glory derived from Latin.
Name Census estimates that about 36,580 living Americans carry the first name Laurel. It is a predominantly female name (96.2% of registrations). The average person named Laurel today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laurel births was 1956 (1,197 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laurel. 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 Laurel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Laurel is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,860 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
37K
~ 1 in 9,370 Americans
Peak year
1956
1,197 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2022 SSA rank
#728
Tracked since 1883
Census
Laurel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 40,187 people with the first name Laurel, which placed it at #1,041 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
#1,041
National first-name rank
People counted
40K
40,187 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laurel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laurel is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.9%) and Black (2.8%). 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 Laurel 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 Laurel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.0% · 36,169
- Two or more races2.9% · 1,182
- Black or African American2.8% · 1,121
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 1,068
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 440
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 207
Gender
Gender distribution for Laurel
Laurel leans heavily female at 96.2% of total registrations, but 1,860 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Laurel as a male name
- Ranked #11,704 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1926 (69 births)
Laurel as a female name
- Ranked #728 in 2024
- 386 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (1,181 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laurel leans strongly female. 39,471 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 714 male bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Laurel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laurel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 9,603 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Laurel 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 Laurel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Laurels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Laurel, while Wyoming, Nevada, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 837 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Laurel
Laurel is a given name of Latin origin, derived from the laurel plant, which has been associated with victory and honor since ancient times. The name gained popularity during the Roman era when laurel wreaths were used to crown victorious leaders, poets, and scholars.
In ancient Greek mythology, the laurel tree was sacred to Apollo, the god of poetry, music, and prophecy. The name Daphne, meaning "laurel" in Greek, was given to a nymph who was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's pursuit. This myth contributed to the symbolic association of the laurel with purity and chastity.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Laurel can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was occasionally given to English and Scottish children. However, it remained relatively uncommon until the 19th century when it experienced a surge in popularity, particularly in the United States.
One of the earliest notable figures to bear the name Laurel was Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, an American historian and academic born in 1938. Her book "A Midwife's Tale" won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991.
Another famous Laurel was Laurel Nakadate, an American artist and filmmaker born in 1975, known for her provocative and boundary-pushing works that explore themes of vulnerability, desire, and identity.
In the literary world, Laurel Snyder is an acclaimed children's book author and poet, born in 1971. Her novel "Orphan Island" won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2018.
The name Laurel has also been associated with several notable athletes, including Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weightlifter and the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Olympic Games, born in 1978.
Lastly, Laurel Aitken, a Jamaican singer and musician born in 1927, is credited as one of the pioneers of the ska and rocksteady genres, helping to shape the sound of modern Jamaican music.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Laurel
People
Laurel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laurel 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
Laurel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laurel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 36,580 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laurel 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 9,370 US residents.
Is Laurel a common name?
We classify Laurel as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 48,599 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laurel most popular?
The single biggest year for Laurel was 1956, when 1,197 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laurel is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laurel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 40,187 people with the name Laurel, or 13.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,041 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 Laurel 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 Laurel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laurel leans strongly female. 39,471 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 714 male bearers (1.8%). 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 Laurel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laurel is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.9%) and Black (2.8%). 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 Laurel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Laurel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.0% (36,169 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 Laurel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laurel a female name?
Yes, 96.2% of people registered as Laurel 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 Laurel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laurel 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 Laurel 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 Laurel?
You can see how many people have the name Laurel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.