Lazarus
A masculine biblical name meaning "God has helped".
Name Census estimates that about 3,493 living Americans carry the first name Lazarus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lazarus today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lazarus births was 2021 (172 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lazarus. 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 Lazarus with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 98,126 Americans
Peak year
2021
172 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,336
Tracked since 1882
Census
Lazarus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,402 people with the first name Lazarus, which placed it at #6,626 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
#6,626
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,402 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
31.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lazarus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lazarus is Black at 31.1%. The next largest groups are White (29.2%) and Hispanic (27.9%). 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 Lazarus 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 Lazarus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American31.1% · 748
- White29.2% · 701
- Hispanic or Latino27.9% · 671
- Two or more races6.5% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 83
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 42
Popularity
Lazarus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lazarus from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,173 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lazarus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lazarus 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 Lazarus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lazarus' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Lazarus, while Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 63 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lazarus
The name Lazarus has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the name Elazar, which means "God has helped." It is a biblical name that first appears in the New Testament of the Bible.
In the Gospel of John, Lazarus is the name of a man from the town of Bethany, who was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ. This miraculous event is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible and has contributed greatly to the popularity of the name Lazarus throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lazarus outside of the Bible is in the 4th century, when a Christian saint named Lazarus of Aix lived in Gaul (modern-day France). He was a bishop and is said to have performed miracles during his lifetime.
In the Middle Ages, the name Lazarus became associated with the concept of resurrection and was often used in religious plays and literature. One notable example is the medieval English play "The Raising of Lazarus," which dramatized the biblical story.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Lazarus. One of the earliest was Lazarus of Bethany, the biblical figure raised from the dead by Jesus Christ, who is believed to have lived in the 1st century AD.
Another important figure was Lazarus of Constantinople, a 9th-century Byzantine monk and saint, who is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is known for his ascetic lifestyle and for defending the use of icons in religious worship.
In the 16th century, the Italian painter Sebastiano Lazaro, also known as Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), was a prominent figure in the Venetian Renaissance. He was a contemporary of Raphael and Michelangelo and is known for his religious paintings and his mastery of the use of light and shadow.
In the 19th century, Lazarus Adler (1810-1900) was a German-American rabbi and scholar who played a significant role in the development of Reform Judaism in the United States. He helped establish several important Jewish institutions, including the Hebrew Union College.
Lastly, Lazarus Fuchs (1833-1902) was a German mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of geometry. He is best known for his work on differential geometry and the development of the Fuchs theorem, which has applications in the study of differential equations.
People
Lazarus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lazarus 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
Lazarus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lazarus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,493 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lazarus 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 98,126 US residents.
Is Lazarus a common name?
We classify Lazarus as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,854 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lazarus most popular?
The single biggest year for Lazarus was 2021, when 172 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lazarus is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lazarus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,402 people with the name Lazarus, or 0.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,626 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 Lazarus 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 Lazarus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lazarus appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,403 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Lazarus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lazarus is Black at 31.1%. The next largest groups are White (29.2%) and Hispanic (27.9%). 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 Lazarus most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Lazarus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 31.1% (748 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 Lazarus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lazarus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lazarus 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 Lazarus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lazarus 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 Lazarus 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 Lazarus?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.