Lark
Small brown songbird known for its melodious singing.
Name Census estimates that about 1,759 living Americans carry the first name Lark. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Lark today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lark births was 1949 (72 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lark. 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 Lark with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 194,857 Americans
Peak year
1949
72 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,534
Tracked since 1885
Census
Lark in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,735 people with the first name Lark, which placed it at #8,370 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
#8,370
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,735 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lark
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lark is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Lark 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 Lark at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.7% · 1,313
- Black or African American10.3% · 178
- Two or more races6.2% · 107
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Lark
Lark leans heavily female at 87.3% of total registrations, but 266 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lark as a male name
- Ranked #13,368 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1922 (11 births)
Lark as a female name
- Ranked #3,534 in 2024
- 44 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1950 (67 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lark leans strongly female. 1,496 people counted with this name were female (86.7%), compared with 230 male bearers (13.3%).
Popularity
Lark: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lark from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 456 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Lark remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lark 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 Lark during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Larks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Lark, while Wisconsin, Colorado, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lark
The name Lark is derived from the Old English word "lauuerc", which referred to the small songbird known for its melodious call. This name has its roots in the ancient Germanic languages and can be traced back to the 5th century AD.
The name was initially used as a descriptive term, likely given to individuals who were known for their cheerful or melodic voices. It was later adopted as a proper name, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Lark can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership in England completed in 1086 under the orders of William the Conqueror. The entry mentions a landowner named "Lark" in the county of Essex.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Lark. One such figure was Lark Brewster (1588-1644), an English Puritan settler who was among the founders of the New Haven Colony in what is now Connecticut, United States.
Another prominent figure was Lark Davies (1770-1832), a Welsh poet and writer known for his contributions to the literary movement of the Romantic era. His works celebrated the natural beauty of Wales and its rural landscapes.
In the realm of politics, Lark Voorhies (1818-1892) was an American politician who served as the 10th Governor of Indiana from 1861 to 1865, leading the state during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War.
The name Lark also has associations with the arts. Lark Pien (1902-1981) was a renowned Chinese-American painter and illustrator, best known for her depictions of the California landscapes and her contributions to the Californian Regionalist art movement.
More recently, Lark Voorhies (born 1974) is an American actress who rose to fame for her role as Lisa Turtle in the popular television sitcom "Saved by the Bell" during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While the name Lark may not be as common today as it once was, it remains a charming and unique choice, carrying with it a rich history and associations with nature, creativity, and resilience.
People
Lark + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lark 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
Lark: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lark?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,759 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lark 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 194,857 US residents.
Is Lark a common name?
We classify Lark as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,096 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lark most popular?
The single biggest year for Lark was 1949, when 72 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lark is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lark in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,735 people with the name Lark, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,370 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 Lark 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 Lark?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lark leans strongly female. 1,496 people counted with this name were female (86.7%), compared with 230 male bearers (13.3%). 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 Lark?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lark is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Two or More Races (6.2%). 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 Lark most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lark in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.7% (1,313 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 Lark in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lark a female name?
Yes, 87.3% of people registered as Lark 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 Lark still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lark 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 Lark 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 share the name Lark?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.