Laramie
A Native American name referring to a river in Wyoming.
Name Census estimates that about 2,690 living Americans carry the first name Laramie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Laramie today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laramie births was 2023 (244 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laramie. 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.
Key insights
- • Laramie started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Laramie sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 127,418 Americans
Peak year
2023
244 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,089
Tracked since 1932
Census
Laramie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,728 people with the first name Laramie, which placed it at #8,397 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
#8,397
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,728 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laramie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laramie is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.5%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Laramie 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 Laramie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 1,405
- Two or more races5.5% · 95
- Black or African American4.6% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 78
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.4% · 59
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Laramie
Laramie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,765 total registrations, 1,175 (42.5%) were male and 1,590 (57.5%) were female.
Laramie as a male name
- Ranked #7,058 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (42 births)
Laramie as a female name
- Ranked #1,089 in 2024
- 226 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (226 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Laramie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,718 people counted with this name, 916 were male (53.3%) and 802 were female (46.7%).
Popularity
Laramie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laramie from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 803 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Laramie 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 Laramie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Laramies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska recorded the most babies named Laramie, while Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Laramie
The name Laramie is believed to have originated from the Arapaho and Cheyenne Native American languages, specifically referring to the Laramie River in Wyoming, United States. The name is thought to derive from the Arapaho word "Littlemoon" or the Cheyenne word "Grapemound".
The earliest recorded use of the name Laramie dates back to the early 19th century, when it was used to refer to the Laramie River and the nearby Fort Laramie, which was a significant trading post and military outpost during the westward expansion of the United States. The name gained popularity as a given name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, likely due to the romanticization of the American West and its Native American heritage.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Laramie was Laramie Smythe, an American frontiersman and trapper who lived in the early 19th century. Records indicate that he was born around 1790 and was active in the fur trade in the Rocky Mountain region.
Another notable individual with the name Laramie was Laramie Hitchcock, a Cheyenne warrior and chief who lived in the mid-19th century. He was known for his participation in the Cheyenne Wars and his efforts to defend his people's lands and way of life.
In the realm of literature, the name Laramie appeared in the 1902 novel "The Virginian" by Owen Wister, which is considered one of the earliest and most influential Western novels. The character of Laramie was a cowboy and a central figure in the story.
A famous individual with the name Laramie in more recent history was Laramie "Doc" Greene, an American professional wrestler who competed in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in 1928 and passed away in 1987.
Another notable figure was Laramie Cooley, an American football player who played for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League (NFL) from 1948 to 1953. He was born in 1924 and passed away in 2010.
While the name Laramie is not as common today as it once was, it remains a unique and intriguing name with a rich cultural heritage and historical significance, particularly in the American West.
People
Laramie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laramie 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
Laramie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laramie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,690 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laramie 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 127,418 US residents.
Is Laramie a common name?
We classify Laramie as "Rare". It ranks above 94.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,765 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laramie most popular?
The single biggest year for Laramie was 2023, when 244 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laramie is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laramie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,728 people with the name Laramie, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,397 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 Laramie 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 Laramie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Laramie on both sides of the split. Of the 1,718 people counted with this name, 916 were male (53.3%) and 802 were female (46.7%). 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 Laramie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laramie is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.5%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Laramie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Laramie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (1,405 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 Laramie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laramie a female name?
Yes, 57.5% of people registered as Laramie in the SSA data are female. 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 Laramie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laramie 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 Laramie 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 Laramie?
Find out how many people have the name Laramie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.