Lorenz
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "laurel wreath bearer".
Name Census estimates that about 951 living Americans carry the first name Lorenz. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lorenz today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lorenz births was 1918 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lorenz. 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 Lorenz with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
951
~ 1 in 360,415 Americans
Peak year
1918
39 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,060
Tracked since 1882
Census
Lorenz in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,211 people with the first name Lorenz, which placed it at #10,828 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
#10,828
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,211 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lorenz
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorenz is White at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (17.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%). 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 Lorenz 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 Lorenz at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.0% · 569
- Black or African American17.4% · 211
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.2% · 184
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 181
- Two or more races4.3% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 14
Popularity
Lorenz: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lorenz from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 266 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lorenz 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 Lorenz during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lorenz' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. California, Iowa, Illinois recorded the most babies named Lorenz, while Texas, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lorenz
The name Lorenz originates from the Late Latin name Laurentius, which in turn derives from the Roman family name Laurentius. This family name was derived from the Latin word "laurus" meaning "laurel". The laurel was a plant that was sacred to the Roman god Apollo and symbolized victory, honor, and fame.
Laurentius was an extremely popular name among early Christians, as it was borne by the 3rd century Spanish martyr Saint Laurentius. This saint was a deacon in Rome who was put to death by the Roman authorities for his Christian faith during the persecution of Emperor Valerian in 258 AD. His martyrdom led to the widespread adoption of his name throughout Europe.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lorenz can be found in the 6th century, with the Frankish bishop Saint Lorenz of Lauriacum (also known as Saint Lorenz of Lorch). He lived from around 530 to 619 AD and was a missionary who helped spread Christianity in what is now Austria.
A notable bearer of the name was Lorenz Oken, a German naturalist and philosopher who lived from 1779 to 1851. He is considered one of the founders of the scientific disciplines of biology and embryology. Another famous Lorenz was the Austrian-British philosopher and mathematician, Konrad Lorenz, who lived from 1903 to 1989. He is best known for his work on animal behavior and for establishing the field of ethology, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973.
The name Lorenz was also borne by the American chemist and Nobel laureate, Linus Pauling, whose given name at birth was Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994). He is renowned for his groundbreaking work on the chemical bond and for his contributions to the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology.
Finally, a notable bearer of the name in the field of music was the American jazz pianist and composer Lorenz Hart, who lived from 1895 to 1943. He is best known for his successful collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers, which produced numerous popular musicals and songs during the Golden Age of Broadway.
People
Lorenz + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lorenz 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
Lorenz: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lorenz?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 951 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lorenz 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 360,415 US residents.
Is Lorenz a common name?
We classify Lorenz as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,746 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lorenz most popular?
The single biggest year for Lorenz was 1918, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lorenz 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 Lorenz in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,211 people with the name Lorenz, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,828 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 Lorenz 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 Lorenz?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lorenz leans strongly male. 1,171 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 48 female bearers (3.9%). 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 Lorenz?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorenz is White at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (17.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%). 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 Lorenz most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lorenz in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.0% (569 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 Lorenz in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lorenz a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lorenz 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 Lorenz still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lorenz 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 Lorenz 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 common is the name Lorenz?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.