Lawrence
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "laurel plant" or "man from Laurentum".
Name Census estimates that about 241,985 living Americans carry the first name Lawrence. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Lawrence today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lawrence births was 1952 (10,336 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lawrence. 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 Lawrence with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lawrence is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,180 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Lawrence have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
242K
~ 1 in 1,416 Americans
Peak year
1952
10,336 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#509
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lawrence in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 240,674 people with the first name Lawrence, which placed it at #234 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
#234
National first-name rank
People counted
241K
240,674 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
79.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lawrence
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lawrence is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.2% · 178,682
- Black or African American15.3% · 36,878
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 10,231
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 7,341
- Two or more races2.3% · 5,535
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2,007
Gender
Gender distribution for Lawrence
Out of the 462,765 babies given the name Lawrence since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Lawrence as a male name
- Ranked #509 in 2024
- 596 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (10,302 births)
Lawrence as a female name
- Ranked #9,254 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (44 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lawrence appears almost entirely male. Of the 240,687 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Lawrence: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lawrence 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 91,385 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
Lawrence 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 Lawrence 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 | 2,919 | 0 | 2,919 |
| 1890s | 4,597 | 25 | 4,622 |
| 1900s | 6,846 | 49 | 6,895 |
| 1910s | 36,354 | 189 | 36,543 |
| 1920s | 56,867 | 309 | 57,176 |
| 1930s | 54,486 | 273 | 54,759 |
| 1940s | 80,459 | 256 | 80,715 |
| 1950s | 91,109 | 276 | 91,385 |
| 1960s | 51,341 | 259 | 51,600 |
| 1970s | 26,663 | 248 | 26,911 |
| 1980s | 19,641 | 177 | 19,818 |
| 1990s | 13,155 | 47 | 13,202 |
| 2000s | 7,614 | 8 | 7,622 |
| 2010s | 5,894 | 17 | 5,911 |
| 2020s | 2,640 | 47 | 2,687 |
Geography
Where Lawrences live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Lawrence, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,722 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lawrence
The name Lawrence originates from the Latin name Laurentius, which is derived from the Roman family name Laurentius, meaning "from Laurentum". Laurentum was an ancient city in Latium, a region of central Italy. The name is also associated with the laurel plant, which was a symbol of victory and honor in ancient Rome.
In the early Christian era, the name gained popularity due to St. Lawrence, a deacon in the Catholic Church who was martyred in Rome in 258 AD. He is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is celebrated on August 10th. The name appears in various early Christian texts and records of martyrs.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lawrence is Lawrence of Canterbury, who served as the second Archbishop of Canterbury from 604 to 619 AD. Another notable figure was Lawrence of Rome, a Roman deacon who was martyred along with St. Sixtus II in 258 AD.
Throughout history, several prominent individuals have borne the name Lawrence. Here are five examples:
1. Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935), a British archaeologist, military officer, and writer, best known for his role in the Arab Revolt during World War I.
2. Lawrence Olivier (1907-1989), a renowned English actor and director, considered one of the greatest performers of the 20th century.
3. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), an American poet, painter, and co-founder of the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, which played a significant role in the Beat Generation.
4. Lawrence Oates (1880-1912), a British Antarctic explorer who sacrificed his life during Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole.
5. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), an Italian Capuchin friar, scholar, and diplomat, who was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1698.
The name Lawrence has been widely used across various cultures and regions, with variations in spelling and pronunciation, reflecting the diverse linguistic and cultural influences it has encountered throughout its long history.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lawrence
People
Lawrence + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lawrence 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
Lawrence: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lawrence?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 241,985 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lawrence 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 1,416 US residents.
Is Lawrence a common name?
We classify Lawrence as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 462,765 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lawrence most popular?
The single biggest year for Lawrence was 1952, when 10,336 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lawrence is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lawrence in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 240,674 people with the name Lawrence, or 79.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #234 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lawrence appears almost entirely male. Of the 240,687 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Lawrence?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lawrence is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Lawrence most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lawrence in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.2% (178,682 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 Lawrence in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lawrence a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Lawrence 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 Lawrence still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lawrence 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 Lawrence 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 common is the name Lawrence?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Lawrence on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.