Lawson
Son of Lawrence, a habitational name from a place in England.
Name Census estimates that about 15,650 living Americans carry the first name Lawson. It sits at #415 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Lawson today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lawson births was 2021 (929 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lawson. 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 Lawson with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lawson is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 549 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Lawson is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,901 Americans
Peak year
2021
929 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#415
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lawson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,172 people with the first name Lawson, which placed it at #2,303 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
#2,303
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lawson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lawson is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Lawson 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 Lawson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.5% · 9,222
- Black or African American7.1% · 790
- Two or more races4.7% · 525
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 408
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 145
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 82
Gender
Gender distribution for Lawson
Lawson leans heavily male at 97.0% of total registrations, but 549 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lawson as a male name
- Ranked #415 in 2024
- 774 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (896 births)
Lawson as a female name
- Ranked #4,950 in 2024
- 27 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (35 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lawson leans strongly male. 10,712 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 459 female bearers (4.1%).
Popularity
Lawson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lawson from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,509 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lawson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lawson 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 Lawson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lawsons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Lawson, while New Mexico, Nevada, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 318 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lawson
The given name Lawson has its origins in the English language and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "law" and "son," which together translate to "son of the law." This suggests that the name was initially given to the sons of lawyers, judges, or lawmen during the medieval period.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Lawson can be traced back to the 13th century in England. During this time, surnames were becoming more prevalent, and many were derived from occupations or familial relationships. The name Lawson likely emerged as a way to identify the sons of those involved in the legal profession or law enforcement.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Lawson was Sir Roger Lawson, an English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France in the mid-14th century. He was a prominent figure during the reign of King Edward III and played a crucial role in several battles, including the Battle of Crécy in 1346.
Another notable bearer of the name was Thomas Lawson, an English clergyman and theologian who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was a prolific writer and authored several books on religious topics, including "The Dicing Prayer" and "The Body of Divinity."
In the 18th century, John Lawson, an English explorer and naturalist, made significant contributions to the study of the flora and fauna of the American colonies. His book "A New Voyage to Carolina," published in 1709, provided detailed accounts of his travels and observations of the natural world in the Carolinas.
Moving into the 19th century, Henry Brougham Lawson, an Australian writer and poet, gained recognition for his works depicting life in the Australian outback. Born in 1867, he is considered one of the most influential figures in Australian literature and is renowned for his short stories and poems that capture the harsh realities of rural life.
Finally, in the 20th century, Wilbur Lawson, an American baseball player, made his mark in the sport. He played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox in the 1930s and was known for his exceptional defensive skills as an outfielder.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Lawson, a name with roots in the legal profession and a rich heritage spanning several centuries.
People
Lawson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lawson 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
Lawson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lawson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,650 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lawson 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 21,901 US residents.
Is Lawson a common name?
We classify Lawson as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,247 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lawson most popular?
The single biggest year for Lawson was 2021, when 929 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lawson is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lawson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,172 people with the name Lawson, or 3.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,303 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 Lawson 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 Lawson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lawson leans strongly male. 10,712 people counted with this name were male (95.9%), compared with 459 female bearers (4.1%). 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 Lawson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lawson is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). 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 Lawson most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lawson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (9,222 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 Lawson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lawson a male name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Lawson 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 Lawson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lawson 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 Lawson 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 named Lawson?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.