Lafayette
A masculine French name meaning "the small plantation".
Name Census estimates that about 2,487 living Americans carry the first name Lafayette. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lafayette today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lafayette births was 1921 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lafayette. 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
2.5K
~ 1 in 137,818 Americans
Peak year
1921
86 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,203
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lafayette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,974 people with the first name Lafayette, which placed it at #7,652 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
#7,652
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
1,974 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lafayette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lafayette is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.5% · 1,510
- White14.2% · 280
- Two or more races5.1% · 100
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 65
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Lafayette
Out of the 4,875 babies given the name Lafayette since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Lafayette as a male name
- Ranked #9,472 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (86 births)
Lafayette as a female name
- Ranked #8,203 in 1974
- 6 female births in 1974
- Peak: 1974 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lafayette leans strongly male. 1,886 people counted with this name were male (95.6%), compared with 86 female bearers (4.4%).
Popularity
Lafayette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lafayette from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 576 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
Lafayette 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 Lafayette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lafayettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, California recorded the most babies named Lafayette, while Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 64 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lafayette
The name Lafayette has its origins in the French language and culture, tracing back to the late 17th century. It is a compound word derived from the French elements "la fayette," which translates to "the small farm" or "the small estate." The name was initially used as a topographic surname, referring to a person who lived on or owned a modest property or farmland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lafayette can be found in the writings of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes, who mentioned a person with this surname in his correspondence from the 1640s. However, the name gained significant prominence during the American Revolutionary War when Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), a French aristocrat and military officer, played a crucial role in supporting the American colonies against the British forces.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lafayette. One of the most famous is Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat and military officer who served as a major-general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was a close friend and aide to George Washington and played a pivotal role in securing French support for the American cause.
Another prominent figure was Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later became a key figure in the French Revolution. He is celebrated as a champion of liberty and human rights.
In the field of literature, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de Lafayette (1634-1693), was a renowned French novelist and writer who is considered one of the earliest modern novelists. Her most famous work is "La Princesse de Clèves," published in 1678.
Another notable individual was Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986), an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. He was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy stories and developed the controversial system of beliefs and practices known as Scientology.
Finally, Lafayette G. Pool (1919-1988) was an American chemist who made significant contributions to the development of synthetic rubber and polymer chemistry. He held over 100 patents and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1988.
People
Lafayette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lafayette 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
Lafayette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lafayette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,487 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lafayette 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 137,818 US residents.
Is Lafayette a common name?
We classify Lafayette as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,875 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lafayette most popular?
The single biggest year for Lafayette was 1921, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lafayette is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lafayette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,974 people with the name Lafayette, or 0.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,652 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lafayette leans strongly male. 1,886 people counted with this name were male (95.6%), compared with 86 female bearers (4.4%). 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 Lafayette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lafayette is Black at 76.5%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Lafayette most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lafayette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (1,510 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 Lafayette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lafayette a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Lafayette 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 Lafayette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lafayette 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 Lafayette 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 called Lafayette?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Lafayette at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.