Latara
An African American feminine name of unknown origin and meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 1,308 living Americans carry the first name Latara. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Latara today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Latara births was 1987 (154 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Latara. 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
1.3K
~ 1 in 262,045 Americans
Peak year
1987
154 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2013 SSA rank
#18,105
Tracked since 1968
Census
Latara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,108 people with the first name Latara, which placed it at #11,526 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
#11,526
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,108 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Latara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Latara is Black at 89.7%. The next largest groups are White (4.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Latara 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 Latara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.7% · 994
- White4.2% · 46
- Two or more races4.1% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 3
Popularity
Latara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Latara from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 744 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Latara 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 Latara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lataras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Florida, Louisiana, Texas recorded the most babies named Latara, while Maryland, Arkansas, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Latara
The given name Latara is believed to have originated in ancient Sumerian culture, one of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia, located in the region that is now modern-day Iraq. It is thought to be derived from the Sumerian words "la" meaning "to flourish" and "tara" meaning "land" or "earth", suggesting a connection to fertility, growth, and abundance.
In the ancient Sumerian cuneiform script, the name Latara was represented by a combination of pictographic symbols depicting a plant or tree and the concept of land or territory. This linguistic and symbolic link may have initially associated the name with the idea of a bountiful harvest or a prosperous land.
Latara appears to have been a relatively uncommon name in ancient Sumerian records, with only a few references found in clay tablets and inscriptions from the third millennium BCE. One notable mention is a female figure named Latara who is depicted in a bas-relief carving from the city of Ur, dating back to around 2500 BCE. She is shown carrying a basket of grain, possibly symbolizing her connection to agriculture and fertility.
As Sumerian culture and language spread throughout Mesopotamia, the name Latara likely traveled with it, becoming adopted and adapted by other civilizations in the region, such as the Akkadians and Babylonians. However, it remained a relatively obscure name, with few documented instances throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Latara was a Babylonian priestess who lived in the city of Nippur during the reign of King Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the 9th century BCE. She is mentioned in a cuneiform tablet detailing religious rituals and offerings made to the goddess Ishtar.
During the Islamic Golden Age, a female scholar and poet named Latara al-Mawsiliya, who lived in the city of Mosul (modern-day Iraq) in the 10th century CE, gained some recognition for her contributions to Arabic literature. Her collection of poems, while not extensively preserved, was praised for its lyrical style and evocative imagery.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Latara ibn Khalid al-Fasi was a Moroccan explorer and navigator who is believed to have traveled along the western coast of Africa and documented his journeys in a lost manuscript.
Another historical figure with the name Latara was a 16th century Ottoman Turkish artist and calligrapher, known for her intricate and ornate calligraphic works, which adorned the walls of mosques and palaces in Istanbul.
More recently, in the 19th century, there was a Latara Begum, a member of the Mughal nobility in India, who was renowned for her patronage of the arts and her support of various cultural and educational initiatives.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who bore the name Latara, demonstrating its enduring, albeit relatively obscure, presence across various cultures and time periods, primarily concentrated in the Middle East and regions influenced by ancient Mesopotamian civilizations.
People
Latara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Latara 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
Latara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Latara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,308 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Latara 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 262,045 US residents.
Is Latara a common name?
We classify Latara as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,394 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Latara most popular?
The single biggest year for Latara was 1987, when 154 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Latara is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Latara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,108 people with the name Latara, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,526 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 Latara 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 Latara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Latara appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,108 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Latara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Latara is Black at 89.7%. The next largest groups are White (4.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Latara most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Latara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.7% (994 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 Latara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Latara a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Latara 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 Latara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Latara 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 Latara 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 Latara as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Latara, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.