Lemmie
A diminutive form of Lemuel, from a Hebrew name meaning "devoted to God."
Name Census estimates that about 207 living Americans carry the first name Lemmie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Lemmie today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lemmie births was 1917 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lemmie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Lemmie is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lemmies were born before 1967.
People living today
207
~ 1 in 1,655,818 Americans
Peak year
1917
28 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1988 SSA rank
#8,018
Tracked since 1889
Census
Lemmie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 272 people with the first name Lemmie, which placed it at #31,478 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
#31,478
National first-name rank
People counted
272
272 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lemmie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lemmie is Black at 52.6%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Lemmie 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 Lemmie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.6% · 143
- White37.5% · 102
- Two or more races5.9% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Lemmie
Lemmie leans heavily male at 81.6% of total registrations, but 150 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lemmie as a male name
- Ranked #8,018 in 1988
- 5 male births in 1988
- Peak: 1931 (21 births)
Lemmie as a female name
- Ranked #10,008 in 2023
- 10 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lemmie leans strongly male. 218 people counted with this name were male (80.1%), compared with 54 female bearers (19.9%).
Popularity
Lemmie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lemmie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 182 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lemmie 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 Lemmie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lemmies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama recorded the most babies named Lemmie, while Alabama, North Carolina, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lemmie
The name Lemmie is an English diminutive form derived from the masculine given name Lemuel. Lemuel is a Hebrew name meaning "devoted to God" or "consecrated to God." It appears in the Old Testament of the Bible as the name of a king mentioned in the Book of Proverbs.
The name Lemmie likely emerged as a shortened variant of Lemuel during the 19th century in English-speaking countries. It was used as an informal nickname or pet name for those named Lemuel. Some of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lemmie can be found in census records and birth registries from the late 1800s in the United States and United Kingdom.
One notable historical figure named Lemmie was Lemmie R. Gwathmey (1880-1955), an American businessman and entrepreneur from Virginia. He founded the Gwathmey Oil Company and was involved in various other business ventures in the early 20th century.
Another individual of historical significance was Lemmie S. Wilson (1890-1965), an American politician who served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1920 to 1924. He later became a member of the Mississippi State Tax Commission.
In the field of sports, Lemmie C. Miller (1898-1983) was an American baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball during the 1920s and 1930s. He played for teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox.
Lemmie L. Stokes (1910-1994) was an American educator and civil rights activist from Mississippi. He worked tirelessly to promote equal educational opportunities for African American students and played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in the state.
Lastly, Lemmie J. Howard (1915-1997) was an American businessman and philanthropist from Texas. He founded the Lemmie J. Howard Foundation, which provided scholarships and support for higher education opportunities for underprivileged students.
These are a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Lemmie, highlighting its use as a diminutive form of the biblical name Lemuel.
People
Lemmie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lemmie 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
Lemmie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lemmie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 207 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lemmie 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 1,655,818 US residents.
Is Lemmie a common name?
We classify Lemmie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 816 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lemmie most popular?
The single biggest year for Lemmie was 1917, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lemmie is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lemmie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 272 people with the name Lemmie, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,478 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 Lemmie 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 Lemmie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lemmie leans strongly male. 218 people counted with this name were male (80.1%), compared with 54 female bearers (19.9%). 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 Lemmie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lemmie is Black at 52.6%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Lemmie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lemmie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.6% (143 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 Lemmie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lemmie a male name?
Yes, 81.6% of people registered as Lemmie 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 Lemmie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lemmie 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 Lemmie 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 share the name Lemmie?
Find out how many Americans are named Lemmie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.