Liban
Of Arabic origin, meaning "frankincense" or "white mountain."
Name Census estimates that about 435 living Americans carry the first name Liban. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Liban today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Liban births was 2016 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Liban. 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 Liban with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
435
~ 1 in 787,941 Americans
Peak year
2016
21 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,464
Tracked since 1992
Census
Liban in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 875 people with the first name Liban, which placed it at #13,702 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
#13,702
National first-name rank
People counted
875
875 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Liban
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Liban is Black at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%). 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 Liban 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 Liban at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American85.6% · 749
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 70
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 32
- White2.1% · 18
- Two or more races0.7% · 6
Popularity
Liban: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Liban from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 147 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Liban remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Liban 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 Liban during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Libans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Liban
The name Liban has its origins in the Semitic languages, specifically in the Aramaic and Arabic tongues spoken in the Middle East and North Africa. It is derived from the Semitic root "lbn," which means "white" or "milk," a reference to the snowy peaks of the eponymous mountain range that forms the backbone of modern-day Lebanon.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Liban can be found in the ancient Phoenician port city of Byblos, where it was used to refer to the mountains that loomed over the settlement. The name was later adopted by the Greeks, who rendered it as "Libanos," and the Romans, who called it "Libanus."
In the Bible, the name Liban appears several times, most notably in the Book of Psalms, where it is used as a metaphor for the majesty and grandeur of God's creation. The prophet Jeremiah also makes reference to the "cedars of Liban," a testament to the region's famed cedar forests that once cloaked its slopes.
Throughout history, the name Liban has been borne by a number of notable figures. One of the earliest was Liban of Byblos, a Phoenician scholar and priest who lived in the 6th century BCE and is credited with inventing the first alphabetic writing system.
In the Islamic world, Liban al-Ansari (d. 738 CE) was a prominent jurist and theologian who played a key role in the development of early Islamic law. Another Liban, known as Liban al-Gharib (d. 1109 CE), was a renowned poet and philosopher who lived in medieval Andalusia.
During the Crusades, the name Liban was adopted by several European nobles and knights who fought in the Holy Land. One such figure was Liban de Lacy (c. 1180-1240), an English baron who participated in the Fifth Crusade and later served as Lord of Meath in Ireland.
In more recent times, the name Liban has been borne by several notable figures in the Arab world, including Liban Shami (1910-1988), a Syrian poet and journalist who was a leading voice in the Arab nationalist movement, and Liban Baalbaki (1957-2022), a Lebanese politician and Member of Parliament.
People
Liban + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Liban 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
Liban: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Liban?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 435 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Liban 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 787,941 US residents.
Is Liban a common name?
We classify Liban as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 440 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Liban most popular?
The single biggest year for Liban was 2016, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Liban is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Liban in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 875 people with the name Liban, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,702 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 Liban 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 Liban?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Liban leans strongly male. 862 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 12 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Liban?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Liban is Black at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.7%). 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 Liban most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Liban in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (749 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 Liban in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Liban a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Liban 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 Liban still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Liban 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 Liban 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 the name Liban?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.