Lahoma
Feminine · “Red people”
Lahoma is Oklahoma with the front cut off. That is the whole of it, and it is one of the cleanest examples in American naming of a place turning into a person: the state arrived, the newspapers were full of it, and families took the last three syllables and used them.
How old is the name Lahoma?
Lahoma first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Lahoma alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 600 people named Lahoma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lahoma most popular?
Lahoma peaked in 1915, reaching #934 nationally. See the whole 1915 chart.
Where it comes from
From okla humma to Lahoma
The story of Lahoma
Oklahoma has a documented author and a documented date, which is rare for a place name of that size. Allen Wright, a Choctaw chief who had been educated in the east and who translated the Choctaw constitution, proposed it at a treaty negotiation in 1866 as a name for a proposed Indian territory, building it out of two ordinary words in his own language. It was adopted, the territory became a state four decades later, and in the years around statehood the word was in every newspaper in the country. Families clipped it the way English clips everything, from the front, and Lahoma was the result. There is a town of the name in the state as well, so the clipping was made more than once and by more than one kind of person.
Meaning
Red people
The word inside the name is Choctaw. Okla is people and humma is red, and the two together were put forward as a name for a territory rather than found there. The clipping keeps the humma half and drops the okla, so what survives in Lahoma is the color and not the people, which is the sort of thing clipping does without meaning to.
How the name formed
- okla humma
- Oklahoma
- Lahoma
Pronouncing Lahoma
luh-HOH-muh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle, exactly as in the last three syllables of the state. The first vowel is reduced almost to nothing, which is why the name is also written Lehoma and Lohoma without any change in sound.
Nicknames for Lahoma
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 1968109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #934reached in 1915
- Change vs 1981
- +40.0%7 in 1983, from 5
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.
Lahomas among us
people named Lahoma 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
Lahoma 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 short, easy to say, and instantly recognizable once the connection to the state is pointed out.
- The word behind it is genuinely Choctaw and genuinely documented, which very few American place-names can claim.
- The rhythm is soft and open and goes well with short surnames.
- Once heard, the name is impossible to separate from the state, and that association will be made in every introduction.
- It is tied to one period of American history and reads as a great-grandmother's name.
- The clipping keeps the half of the Choctaw word that means red and drops the half that means people, which is worth knowing before explaining the name to anyone.
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What they receive
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Lahoma
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Lahomas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Lahoma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lahoma in 2025?
- Lahoma is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lahoma with classmates?
- Lahoma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lahoma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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