Lakin
Feminine · “little Lawrence”
Lakin is given to both — 1,916 girls and 439 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
The -kin at the end of Lakin is a medieval pet-name suffix, borrowed from Dutch and Low German, and it built a whole shelf of English surnames: Watkins from Walter, Perkins from Peter, Jenkins from John, Hopkins from Robert, and Lakin from Lawrence.
How old is the name Lakin?
Lakin first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Lakin alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 1,900 people named Lakin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lakin most popular?
Lakin peaked in 1996, reaching #1625 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 4,921 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Laurentius to Lakin
The story of Lakin
Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries English borrowed the diminutive suffix -kin from across the North Sea and applied it enthusiastically to men's names, producing forms that were nicknames in their own day and are surnames now: Wilkin, Simkin, Dawkin, Hankin, Lawkin. Almost none of them survives as a living pet name, so the suffix is invisible to modern speakers even though it is sitting in a dozen extremely common surnames. Lakin is one of them. Its use as an American girls' given name is modern and belongs to the general movement of surnames into girls' names, with a best year of 1996.
Meaningscholars disagree
little Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum
The English surname Lakin is generally derived from Lawkin, a diminutive of Lawrence with the -kin suffix. Lawrence descends from Latin Laurentius, from the town of Laurentum, whose own name is usually connected to laurus, the bay tree. A second route derives the surname from a Middle English word for play or sport. The -kin ending is not disputed.
How the name formed
- Laurentius
- Lawrence
- Lawkin
- Lakin
Related forms: Lakins · Laken · -ken
Pronouncing Lakin
LAY-kin
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Some families say LACK-in with a short first vowel, following the surname's older pronunciation, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Lakin
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 199694 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1625reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −15.0%17 in 2025, from 20
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.
Lakin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lakins in English — related form
- Laken in English — spelling variant
- -ken in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Kansas.
Lakins among us
people named Lakin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Lakin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lakin
- #6546
- Lakin on the 2025 chart
- #785
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lakin went to 17 girls in 2025, but Lakyn and Lakynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 175, which makes it the 785th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,761 places above the chart.
- Lakyn144
- Lakin17
- Lakynn14
About 1 girl in 9,184 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Lakin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Camie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lakin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Camie climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Camie's path sketches the road Lakin is walking now.
Lakin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Lakin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lakin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine English surname with a documented medieval suffix inside it.
- Lake is available as a short form and is currently fashionable.
- Five letters and no spelling ambiguity.
- Laken and Lakin both circulate and are said differently by some families.
- The first vowel is long or short depending on which spelling a reader knows.
- As a surname-derived girls' name it dates to the last thirty years.
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What they receive
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Lakin
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lakins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Lakin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lakin?
- Lakin is one of 3 recorded spellings. Lakyn is the more common one — 144 births in 2025 against 17 for Lakin.
- How popular is the name Lakin in 2025?
- Lakin ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lakin?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Lakin — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lakin with classmates?
- Lakin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lakin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lakin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lakin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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