Lazer
Variant of the biblical name Eleazar, from Hebrew meaning "God has helped".
Name Census estimates that about 782 living Americans carry the first name Lazer. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lazer today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lazer births was 2023 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lazer. 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 Lazer with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
782
~ 1 in 438,305 Americans
Peak year
2023
55 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,122
Tracked since 1958
Census
Lazer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 591 people with the first name Lazer, which placed it at #18,272 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
#18,272
National first-name rank
People counted
591
591 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
95.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lazer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lazer is White at 95.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.9%) and Black (0.8%). 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 Lazer 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 Lazer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White95.8% · 566
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 11
- Black or African American0.8% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
- Two or more races0.3% · 2
Popularity
Lazer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lazer from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 317 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lazer remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lazer 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 Lazer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lazers live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lazer
The name Lazer is believed to have its origins in Hebrew, derived from the biblical name Eleazar, which means "God has helped." The name Eleazar appears in several passages throughout the Old Testament, including the Book of Numbers, where it is mentioned as the name of Aaron's third son.
In the Middle Ages, the name Eleazar was often transliterated into various European languages, leading to variations such as Lazar, Lazare, and Lazarus. These forms were particularly common in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where they were used by Jewish and Christian communities alike.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lazer can be found in the Byzantine Empire, where a monk named Lazer of Murom lived in the late 11th century. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church for his ascetic lifestyle and alleged miraculous healings.
In the 14th century, a prominent Jewish scholar and philosopher named Lazar ben Moshe Idelsohn lived in Spain and wrote extensively on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. His works had a significant impact on the development of Jewish thought during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry.
During the Renaissance, a Serbian nobleman named Lazar Hrebeljanović (c. 1329-1389) played a pivotal role in the Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire. Despite his ultimate defeat and death, he became a celebrated figure in Serbian folklore and is remembered as a symbol of resistance and national pride.
In the 19th century, a Russian general named Lazar Globa (1805-1888) distinguished himself in the Caucasus War and the Crimean War, earning numerous military honors for his service. He is remembered as one of the most skilled cavalry commanders of his era.
Another notable figure with the name Lazer was the Bulgarian revolutionary and socialist leader, Lazer Kolishevski (1876-1918). He played a significant role in the struggle for national liberation and social reform in the early 20th century, and his legacy continues to be celebrated in Bulgaria today.
People
Lazer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lazer 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
Lazer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lazer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 782 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lazer 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 438,305 US residents.
Is Lazer a common name?
We classify Lazer as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 791 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lazer most popular?
The single biggest year for Lazer was 2023, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lazer is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lazer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 591 people with the name Lazer, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,272 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 Lazer 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 Lazer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lazer appears almost entirely male. Of the 595 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 Lazer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lazer is White at 95.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.9%) and Black (0.8%). 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 Lazer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lazer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.8% (566 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 Lazer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lazer a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lazer 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 Lazer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lazer 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 Lazer 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 Lazer?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.