Lacy
Masculine · “from Lassy in Normandy”
Lacy is given to both — 6,474 boys and 20,211 girls since 1880. See Lacy as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lacy is the plainest of five spellings and the one closest to the surname it came from. De Lacy was a Norman family that took its name from Lassy in Normandy and ended up holding land across England and Ireland; the -y ending is the ordinary English way to write the sound, and Lacey, Lacee, Laci and Lacie all add letters to it.
How old is the name Lacy?
Lacy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lacy alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 2,600 people named Lacy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lacy most popular?
Lacy peaked in 1900, reaching #385 nationally. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lassy to Lacy
The story of Lacy
The de Lacys were among the more significant Norman families in England and later in Ireland, where they held large lordships in Meath and Ulster, and the surname outlasted the estates by many centuries. It became an American given name in the twentieth century by the ordinary route and moved to girls quickly — helped, in all likelihood, by the fabric, which gave the name a softness the Norman warlords did not supply. This spelling is the one that stayed shortest and the one that reads most clearly as a surname.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Lassy in Normandy
The surname is territorial: a family from Lassy in Calvados took the place as their name, as Norman families routinely did. What Lassy itself meant is a Gaulish or Latin question with no clean answer. The fabric word lace is a separate line entirely, from Latin laqueus, a noose, by way of a French word for a cord — unrelated to the family name and constantly assumed to be its source.
How the name formed
- Lassy
- de Lacy
- Lacy
Related forms: Lassy
Pronouncing Lacy
LAY-see
LAY-see, two syllables, stress at the front. All five spellings of this name are said identically, so the sound gives a listener no information about which is on the certificate.
Nicknames for Lacy
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1924125 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #385reached in 1900
- Change vs 2014
- 0.0%7 in 2021, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Lacy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lassy in French — related form
Lacys among us
people named Lacy are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lacy sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is the shortest and plainest of the five spellings and the closest to the surname.
- It has a documented Norman family behind it with a real history in two countries.
- It works for either child, as surname-derived names generally do.
- Lacey is the more common spelling and the name will be written both ways for life.
- The fabric association is fixed and is what most people think of first.
- It reads as a surname on a list, which happens to every name that makes this journey.
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What they receive
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Lacy
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Lacys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Lacy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lacy in 2025?
- Lacy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lacy with classmates?
- Lacy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lacy? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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