Lazar
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has helped".
Name Census estimates that about 765 living Americans carry the first name Lazar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lazar today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lazar births was 2012 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lazar. 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
765
~ 1 in 448,045 Americans
Peak year
2012
39 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,734
Tracked since 1931
Popularity
Lazar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lazar from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 258 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lazar remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lazar 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 Lazar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lazars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Illinois, California recorded the most babies named Lazar, while Florida, California, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 55 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lazar
The given name Lazar has its origins in the Late Latin name Lazarus, which is derived from the Hebrew name El'azar, meaning "God has helped". This name has been associated with Lazarus of Bethany, a figure mentioned in the New Testament who was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ.
The name Lazar has been particularly prevalent in Eastern European countries, especially in the Balkans and parts of Russia. It is a common name among Slavic and Orthodox Christian communities, where it has been used for centuries. In some Slavic languages, such as Russian and Serbian, the name is spelled as "Lazar".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lazar can be found in the writings of the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea, who lived in the 6th century AD. He mentions a military commander named Lazar who served under the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures bearing the name Lazar. One of the most famous was Lazar the Serb, also known as Saint Lazar of Kosovo (c. 1329-1389), a Serbian prince and the leader of the Serbian army during the Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire in 1389.
Another prominent figure was Lazar Hrebeljanović (c. 1329-1389), a Serbian nobleman and the founder of the Moravian Serbia, a short-lived medieval Serbian state in the late 14th century. He was also the father of Saint Lazar of Kosovo.
In the 19th century, Lazar Karavelov (1834-1867) was a Bulgarian writer, journalist, and revolutionary who played a significant role in the Bulgarian National Revival movement and the struggle for Bulgarian independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (1893-1991) was a Soviet politician and close associate of Joseph Stalin. He served as a member of the Politburo and played a crucial role in the Soviet industrialization and collectivization efforts in the 1930s.
Lazar Berman (1930-2005) was a renowned Soviet and Russian pianist, known for his interpretations of the works of Romantic composers such as Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann. He was a recipient of the prestigious State Prize of the Russian Federation.
People
Lazar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lazar 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
Lazar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lazar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 765 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lazar 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 448,045 US residents.
Is Lazar a common name?
We classify Lazar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 787 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lazar most popular?
The single biggest year for Lazar was 2012, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lazar is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lazar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lazar 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.
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.