Lala
Feminine
When people sing without words they sing la. English has lullaby, Spanish has la-la-la, Arabic has laylay, and the technical term for it is lalation. The reason is mechanical: la is the easiest syllable a human mouth can make, an open vowel behind a consonant that requires almost nothing.
How old is the name Lala?
Lala first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Lala alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 600 people named Lala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lala most popular?
Lala peaked in 1900, reaching #725 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,637 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Lala
Our reading is that Lala belongs to a class of names built from the sounds a mouth makes with the least effort, and that this is worth stating because it explains why the same syllables recur across unrelated languages. Mama and papa are the standard example: they appear with parental meanings in languages from every family, not because the languages are related but because those are the first sounds an infant produces, and adults assign them meanings. La is in the same category. It requires an open vowel and a tongue tap, and it is what singers use when they have no words, what lullabies are built from, and what a great many affectionate nicknames reduce to. Registering such a form as a legal name is a different matter, and the 1900 peak places Lala among the many nineteenth-century American names that were family nicknames written onto certificates.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Lala is a reduplicated form rather than a name with an etymology. It serves as a short form for a wide range of names in Spanish, Slavic and South Asian languages, and appears independently as an affectionate form in many others. In Turkish and Persian lala is a word for a tutor or guardian; in Hindi it is a term of address. The American given name peaks in 1900 and is most likely a family short form registered as a name.
Pronouncing Lala
LAH-lah
Two identical syllables, stress on the first. There is no other possible reading, which is true of most reduplicated names.
Nicknames for Lala
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 192139 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #725reached in 1900
- Change vs 2023
- +9.1%12 in 2025, from 11
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.
Lala in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lala in Spanish — same name
- Lala in Turkish — related form
Lalas among us
people named Lala are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Lala
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lala
- #8362
- Lala on the 2025 chart
- #943
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lala went to 12 girls in 2025, but Lalah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 943rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,419 places above the chart.
- Lala12
- Lalah5
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Lala 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
Fashion outlook
Lala 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
Lala beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lala in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It cannot be mispronounced or misspelled.
- It works as an affectionate form in many languages.
- It is memorable on a single hearing.
- It reads as a nickname rather than a full name.
- No meaning can be given.
- The register stays informal.
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Lala
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lalas 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 Lala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lala?
- Lala is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 17 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lalah.
- How popular is the name Lala in 2025?
- Lala ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lala?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Lala — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lala with classmates?
- Lala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lala
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lala? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lala and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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