Lyman
A masculine given name meaning "supplanter" or "tenacious fighter".
Name Census estimates that about 2,772 living Americans carry the first name Lyman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lyman today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lyman births was 1917 (220 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lyman. 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
2.8K
~ 1 in 123,649 Americans
Peak year
1917
220 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,414
Tracked since 1880
Census
Lyman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,864 people with the first name Lyman, which placed it at #5,812 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
#5,812
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,864 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lyman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lyman is White at 81.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (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 Lyman 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 Lyman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.1% · 2,323
- Black or African American7.1% · 204
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.7% · 106
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 105
- Two or more races2.6% · 75
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 51
Popularity
Lyman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lyman 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 1,823 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
Lyman 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 Lyman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lymans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Missouri recorded the most babies named Lyman, while Virginia, Mississippi, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 97 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lyman
The given name Lyman is believed to have originated from the Old English words "lea" meaning a meadow or field, and "mann" meaning man. It was initially used as a surname in medieval England, referring to someone who lived near or worked on a meadow or field.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the name Lyman began to transition from a surname to a masculine given name. This transition occurred primarily in England and later spread to other English-speaking regions, such as the American colonies.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Lyman was Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), an American Presbyterian minister and religious leader known for his role in the Second Great Awakening religious revival movement.
Another notable figure was Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896), an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and co-authored the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery.
In the field of science, Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1914-1997) was an American theoretical physicist and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of stellar dynamics and played a key role in the development of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American author best known for his classic children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and its sequels, which have been adapted into numerous films, musicals, and other media.
In the world of sports, Lyman Bostock (1950-1978) was an American professional baseball player who played as an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins and California Angels in the 1970s, tragically losing his life in a shooting incident at the age of 27.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Lyman, which has its roots in the Old English language and was initially used as a surname before transitioning to a masculine given name in the 16th and 17th centuries.
People
Lyman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lyman 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
Lyman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lyman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,772 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lyman 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 123,649 US residents.
Is Lyman a common name?
We classify Lyman as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,553 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lyman most popular?
The single biggest year for Lyman was 1917, when 220 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lyman is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lyman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,864 people with the name Lyman, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,812 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 Lyman 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 Lyman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lyman appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,861 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Lyman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lyman is White at 81.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (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 Lyman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lyman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.1% (2,323 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 Lyman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lyman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lyman 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 Lyman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lyman 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 Lyman 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 Lyman?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Lyman, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.