Laval
A short form of the name Lavalle, derived from the French words la vallée, meaning "the valley".
Name Census estimates that about 159 living Americans carry the first name Laval. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Laval today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laval births was 1955 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laval. 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
159
~ 1 in 2,155,688 Americans
Peak year
1955
9 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2008 SSA rank
#11,959
Tracked since 1921
Census
Laval in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 248 people with the first name Laval, which placed it at #33,395 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
#33,395
National first-name rank
People counted
248
248 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laval
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laval is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are White (22.2%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Laval 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 Laval at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.5% · 170
- White22.2% · 55
- Two or more races3.6% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 6
Popularity
Laval: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laval from the 1920s through to the 2000s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 49 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
Laval 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 Laval 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 Laval
The name Laval is of French origin, derived from the Old French word "val," which means "valley" or "dale." The name is believed to have emerged in the Middle Ages, possibly as a reference to someone living in or near a valley.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Laval can be found in the 11th century, when the Seigneurs de Laval, a noble family from the region of Laval in northwestern France, rose to prominence. The family's name was derived from the town of Laval, which itself was named after its location in a valley.
In the 12th century, a prominent figure named Guy de Laval (1112-1183) was a French nobleman and crusader who participated in the Second Crusade. He was part of the force led by King Louis VII of France and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the time.
Another notable individual with the name Laval was François de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708), a French Roman Catholic priest who served as the first Bishop of Quebec in New France (now Canada). He is revered as a significant figure in the early history of the Catholic Church in Canada and was canonized as a saint in 2014.
In the 19th century, Pierre-Édouard Laval (1808-1879) was a French lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 1835 to 1836. He played a role in the July Revolution of 1830, which saw the overthrow of King Charles X and the installation of Louis Philippe as the new French monarch.
During World War II, Pierre Laval (1883-1945) was a controversial French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France during the Nazi German occupation. He collaborated with the German authorities and was later convicted of treason and executed after the war.
Throughout history, the name Laval has been associated with individuals from various walks of life, including nobility, clergy, politicians, and military figures. While its origins can be traced back to the French word for "valley," the name has taken on significance in different contexts and cultures over the centuries.
People
Laval + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laval 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
Laval: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laval?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 159 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laval 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 2,155,688 US residents.
Is Laval a common name?
We classify Laval as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 204 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laval most popular?
The single biggest year for Laval was 1955, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laval is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laval in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 248 people with the name Laval, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,395 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 Laval 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 Laval?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laval leans strongly male. 215 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 33 female bearers (13.3%). 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 Laval?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laval is Black at 68.5%. The next largest groups are White (22.2%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Laval most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Laval in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.5% (170 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 Laval in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laval a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Laval 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 Laval still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laval 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 Laval 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 Laval?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.