Lamin
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "eternal guide".
Name Census estimates that about 258 living Americans carry the first name Lamin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lamin today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lamin births was 2007 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lamin. 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 Lamin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
258
~ 1 in 1,328,505 Americans
Peak year
2007
14 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,057
Tracked since 1977
Census
Lamin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 827 people with the first name Lamin, which placed it at #14,280 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
#14,280
National first-name rank
People counted
827
827 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lamin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lamin is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Lamin 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 Lamin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.3% · 780
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 14
- Two or more races1.7% · 14
- White1.2% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Popularity
Lamin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lamin from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 93 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lamin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lamin 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 Lamin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lamin
The name Lamin has its origins in the Wolof language, spoken primarily in Senegal and Gambia. It is derived from the Wolof word "lam," which means "to precede" or "to go before." The name likely emerged as early as the 13th century, during the flourishing of the Wolof Empire in West Africa.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Lamin can be found in the Epic of Sundiata, a medieval oral tradition that recounts the story of the founder of the Mali Empire. In this epic, Lamin is mentioned as one of the griots, or oral historians, who preserved the history and traditions of the Mandinka people.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Lamin. One of the earliest was Lamin Khayr, a 16th-century Wolof military leader and diplomat who played a crucial role in the expansion of the Wolof Empire under the reign of Damel (King) Amari Ngoone.
Another prominent figure was Lamin Sané, a 19th-century Senegalese scholar and Islamic teacher who established several Quranic schools and played a significant role in the spread of Islamic education in the region. He was born in 1835 and died in 1887.
In the 20th century, Lamin Diack, born in 1933, was a Senegalese businessman and former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). He served as the IAAF president from 1999 to 2015 and was instrumental in the global development of athletics.
Lamin Keita, born in 1961, is a Guinean politician who served as the Prime Minister of Guinea from 2010 to 2012. He played a crucial role in the transition to democracy in Guinea after years of authoritarian rule.
Lamin Sanneh, born in 1942, is a Gambian-American historian and scholar of Islam and Christianity. He is widely recognized for his contributions to the study of religious and cultural interactions in Africa and the African diaspora.
It is worth noting that while the name Lamin has its roots in the Wolof language and culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and is now used in various parts of Africa and the world, particularly among Muslim communities.
People
Lamin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lamin 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
Lamin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lamin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 258 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lamin 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 1,328,505 US residents.
Is Lamin a common name?
We classify Lamin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 262 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lamin most popular?
The single biggest year for Lamin was 2007, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lamin is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lamin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 827 people with the name Lamin, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,280 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 Lamin 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 Lamin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lamin appears almost entirely male. Of the 823 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Lamin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lamin is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Lamin most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lamin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (780 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 Lamin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lamin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lamin 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 Lamin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lamin 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 Lamin 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 Lamin?
Find out how many people share the name Lamin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.