Lander
One who makes a descent or landing.
Name Census estimates that about 932 living Americans carry the first name Lander. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lander today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lander births was 2022 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lander. 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 Lander with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
932
~ 1 in 367,762 Americans
Peak year
2022
40 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,733
Tracked since 1913
Census
Lander in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 881 people with the first name Lander, which placed it at #13,631 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
#13,631
National first-name rank
People counted
881
881 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lander
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lander is White at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Black (16.2%). 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 Lander 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 Lander at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.9% · 475
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 171
- Black or African American16.2% · 143
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 41
- Two or more races4.1% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 15
Popularity
Lander: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lander from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 280 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lander remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lander 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 Lander during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Landers live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lander
The name Lander has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "land," meaning "estate" or "territory." It first emerged as a surname, often given to those who owned or worked on large tracts of land during the Middle Ages in England.
As a given name, Lander likely gained popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries, when many English families began using occupation-based surnames as first names. This practice was particularly common among Puritans and other Protestant groups who sought to distance themselves from traditional saints' names.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Lander as a first name can be found in the parish records of St. Mary's Church in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, where a boy named Lander Smythe was christened in 1612.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lander. One of the most famous was Lander Blanchard (1804-1869), an English explorer and naval officer who led expeditions along the Niger River in West Africa in the 1830s and 1840s.
Another prominent figure was Lander Hawes (1842-1914), an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative from Missouri from 1885 to 1889. In the field of literature, Lander Kimball (1904-1997) was an American author and illustrator best known for his children's books, including "The Fuzzy Duck" and "The Littlest Rabbit."
In the realm of sports, Lander Balfour (1903-1992) was a Canadian ice hockey player who competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics and later coached several professional teams. More recently, Lander Clemons (born 1990) is an American professional basketball player who has played in various leagues around the world.
While the name Lander has ancient roots, it has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, perhaps due to its association with a specific occupation or social class. Nevertheless, it has endured as a unique and distinctive name, carried by individuals from diverse backgrounds and eras.
People
Lander + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lander 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
Lander: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lander?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 932 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lander 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 367,762 US residents.
Is Lander a common name?
We classify Lander as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,121 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lander most popular?
The single biggest year for Lander was 2022, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lander is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lander in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 881 people with the name Lander, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,631 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 Lander 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 Lander?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lander leans strongly male. 800 people counted with this name were male (90.9%), compared with 80 female bearers (9.1%). 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 Lander?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lander is White at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Black (16.2%). 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 Lander most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lander in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.9% (475 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 Lander in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lander a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lander 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 Lander still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lander 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 Lander 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 have the name Lander?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.