Lavar
Masculine name from French meaning "to wash" or "cleansing".
Name Census estimates that about 1,843 living Americans carry the first name Lavar. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Lavar today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lavar births was 1977 (279 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lavar. 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
1.8K
~ 1 in 185,976 Americans
Peak year
1977
279 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2022 SSA rank
#11,317
Tracked since 1915
Census
Lavar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,361 people with the first name Lavar, which placed it at #9,970 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
#9,970
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,361 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lavar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lavar is Black at 81.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.6%) and Two or More Races (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 Lavar 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 Lavar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American81.6% · 1,111
- White9.6% · 131
- Two or more races4.6% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Lavar
Out of the 2,078 babies given the name Lavar since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Lavar as a male name
- Ranked #13,515 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1977 (279 births)
Lavar as a female name
- Ranked #11,317 in 1980
- 5 female births in 1980
- Peak: 1978 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lavar leans strongly male. 1,345 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 16 female bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Lavar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lavar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 611 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lavar 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 Lavar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lavars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Lavar, while Idaho, Mississippi, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lavar
The name Lavar is believed to have its origins in the ancient Persian language. It is derived from the Old Persian word "lav", which means "to keep" or "to protect". The name likely emerged during the Achaemenid Empire period, which spanned from the 6th to 4th centuries BC.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Lavar can be found in the Avestan texts, which are the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism. The name appears in the Yasna, a collection of hymns and prayers, where it is used as a reference to a divine protector.
In the medieval period, the name Lavar gained popularity among the Persians and was often given to male children as a symbol of strength and guardianship. Some historical records from the 10th century mention a Persian nobleman named Lavar ibn Rustam, who was a prominent military leader during the Samanid Empire.
During the Renaissance period, the name Lavar found its way into European cultures through trade and cultural exchange with the Middle East. One notable figure with this name was Lavar de la Merced, a Spanish explorer who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493.
In the 19th century, the name Lavar was adopted by some families in the United States, particularly those with Persian or Middle Eastern roots. One notable American figure with this name was Lavar Munroe (1803-1865), a Baptist minister and abolitionist who played a significant role in the Underground Railroad.
Another prominent individual named Lavar was Lavar Burton (born 1957), an American actor best known for his role as Kunta Kinte in the television miniseries "Roots" and as the host of the long-running children's educational program "Reading Rainbow".
Other historical figures bearing the name Lavar include Lavar Arrington (born 1978), a former American football linebacker who played for the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants, and Lavar Ball (born 1967), an American businessman and former professional basketball player who gained notoriety for his outspoken persona and promotion of his sons' basketball careers.
People
Lavar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lavar 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
Lavar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lavar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,843 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lavar 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 185,976 US residents.
Is Lavar a common name?
We classify Lavar as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,078 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lavar most popular?
The single biggest year for Lavar was 1977, when 279 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lavar is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lavar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,361 people with the name Lavar, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,970 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 Lavar 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 Lavar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lavar leans strongly male. 1,345 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 16 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Lavar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lavar is Black at 81.6%. The next largest groups are White (9.6%) and Two or More Races (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 Lavar most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lavar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (1,111 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 Lavar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lavar a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Lavar 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 Lavar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lavar 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 Lavar 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 Lavar?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.