Lonn
A masculine name derived from the Irish 'lon' meaning "blackbird".
Name Census estimates that about 319 living Americans carry the first name Lonn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lonn today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lonn births was 1968 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lonn. 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
319
~ 1 in 1,074,465 Americans
Peak year
1968
19 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
1980 SSA rank
#4,366
Tracked since 1940
Census
Lonn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 400 people with the first name Lonn, which placed it at #24,171 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
#24,171
National first-name rank
People counted
400
400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lonn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonn is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Lonn 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 Lonn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.5% · 334
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 23
- Two or more races4.8% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 11
- Black or African American2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 5
Popularity
Lonn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lonn from the 1940s through to the 1980s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 134 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lonn 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 Lonn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lonns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lonn
The name Lonn has its origins in Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings and other Germanic peoples in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old Norse word "lund," which means "grove" or "sacred grove." This suggests that the name may have been associated with nature worship or pagan beliefs in ancient Scandinavian cultures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lonn can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical tales and legends that date back to the 13th and 14th centuries. In these texts, Lonn is mentioned as the name of a prominent Viking warrior and chieftain who lived in the 9th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lonn. One of the most famous was Lonn Eyjólfsson (1140-1218), an Icelandic chieftain and lawspeaker who played a significant role in the Sturlunga saga, a historical work that chronicles the Age of the Sturlungs in Iceland during the 13th century.
Another Lonn of note was Lonn Vídalín (1668-1720), an Icelandic poet and scholar who is considered one of the founders of modern Icelandic literature. His most notable work is the epic poem "Húspostilla," which was inspired by the Bible and Icelandic folktales.
In the 19th century, Lonn Thordarson (1866-1945) was an Icelandic-American entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Thordarson Electric Manufacturing Company, a successful electrical equipment business in Chicago.
Moving into the 20th century, Lonn Reiersen (1920-1998) was a Norwegian-American painter and sculptor who gained recognition for his abstract expressionist works and his contributions to the art scene in New York City during the mid-20th century.
Finally, Lonn Friend (1952-2022) was an American musician and songwriter best known for his work as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Molly Hatchet. He co-wrote some of the band's most popular songs, including "Flirtin' with Disaster" and "Dreams I'll Never See."
People
Lonn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lonn 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
Lonn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lonn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 319 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lonn 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 1,074,465 US residents.
Is Lonn a common name?
We classify Lonn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 392 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lonn most popular?
The single biggest year for Lonn was 1968, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lonn 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 Lonn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 400 people with the name Lonn, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,171 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 Lonn 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 Lonn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lonn leans strongly male. 385 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 17 female bearers (4.2%). 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 Lonn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lonn is White at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Lonn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lonn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.5% (334 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 Lonn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lonn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lonn 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 Lonn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lonn 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 Lonn 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 Lonn?
Find out how many people have the name Lonn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.