Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Lafayette was most popular in 1921, when 86 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,458 that year. In 2025 it ranked #20,040, with 7 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 4,882 people named Lafayette.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Lafayette is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 146 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 4,882 American births named Lafayette between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 2,348 are estimated to be alive today.
7 American babies were named Lafayette in 2025, ranking #20,040 that year.
Lafayette is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 11 births a year across 2021–2025 against 15 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Lafayette is a boy’s name — 0.4% of the 4,882 Americans given it were girls and 99.6% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 2,348 Americans named Lafayette are alive today — 48% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 53 years old, and half are between 36 and 69. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Lafayette on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org