Laverne
One with verdant fields or springs; feminine variation of French name Laverne.
Name Census estimates that about 15,485 living Americans carry the first name Laverne. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Laverne today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laverne births was 1924 (1,785 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laverne. 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 Laverne with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Laverne is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lavernes were born before 1964.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Laverne have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,135 Americans
Peak year
1924
1,785 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,671
Tracked since 1885
Census
Laverne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,868 people with the first name Laverne, which placed it at #1,609 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
#1,609
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,868 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laverne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laverne is White at 53.1%. The next largest groups are Black (40.0%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Laverne 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 Laverne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.1% · 10,555
- Black or African American40.0% · 7,945
- Two or more races2.0% · 395
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 392
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 308
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 273
Gender
Gender distribution for Laverne
Laverne is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 56,114 total registrations, 13,245 (23.6%) were male and 42,869 (76.4%) were female.
Laverne as a male name
- Ranked #8,671 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1928 (428 births)
Laverne as a female name
- Ranked #17,225 in 2003
- 5 female births in 2003
- Peak: 1924 (1,383 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laverne leans strongly female. 16,463 people counted with this name were female (82.9%), compared with 3,403 male bearers (17.1%).
Popularity
Laverne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laverne from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 16,669 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Laverne 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 Laverne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lavernes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas recorded the most babies named Laverne, while Nevada, Connecticut, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Laverne
The name Laverne has its origins in the French language, derived from the Latin name Laverna, which was the name of the Roman goddess of thieves and tricksters. The name is believed to have evolved from the Latin word "laverium," meaning "gain" or "profit."
In ancient Roman mythology, Laverna was revered by thieves and con artists who sought her protection and assistance in carrying out their illicit activities. Her festival, known as the Lavernalia, was celebrated annually on the 23rd of March.
The earliest recorded use of the name Laverne can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it was occasionally bestowed upon children in certain regions of France. However, it was not a widely popular name during this time period.
One of the earliest notable individuals named Laverne was Laverne de Chastelard, a 16th-century French noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. She was born in 1530 and died in 1595.
Another historical figure with the name Laverne was Laverne Delcour, a French Catholic nun who lived in the 17th century. She was known for her charitable work and devotion to helping the poor and underprivileged.
In the 19th century, the name Laverne gained some popularity in the United States, particularly among French-American communities. One notable American Laverne was Laverne Mondragon, a pioneering educator and advocate for bilingual education, who was born in New Mexico in 1882 and lived until 1965.
Another American Laverne of historical significance was Laverne Burnett, a baseball player who played for the New York Giants in the early 20th century. He was born in 1886 and died in 1952.
Laverne Hutchinson, an American politician and the first woman to serve as mayor of Reno, Nevada, held office from 1975 to 1979. She was born in 1915 and passed away in 2005.
While the name Laverne has its roots in ancient Roman mythology and French culture, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and societies throughout history, albeit with varying levels of popularity.
People
Laverne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laverne 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
Laverne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laverne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,485 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laverne 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 22,135 US residents.
Is Laverne a common name?
We classify Laverne as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 56,114 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laverne most popular?
The single biggest year for Laverne was 1924, when 1,785 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laverne is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laverne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,868 people with the name Laverne, or 6.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,609 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 Laverne 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 Laverne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laverne leans strongly female. 16,463 people counted with this name were female (82.9%), compared with 3,403 male bearers (17.1%). 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 Laverne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laverne is White at 53.1%. The next largest groups are Black (40.0%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Laverne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Laverne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.1% (10,555 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 Laverne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laverne a female name?
Yes, 76.4% of people registered as Laverne 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 Laverne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laverne 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 Laverne 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 Laverne?
Find out how many people have the name Laverne on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.