Lam
Masculine · “forest”
Lam is given to both — 554 boys and 76 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Lam is a forest. The character it is written with in Vietnamese and Chinese is two trees standing side by side — one of those characters that draws its meaning rather than spelling it — and it means woodland. Three letters in the Roman alphabet carry none of that, which is the ordinary fate of a Vietnamese name arriving on an American form.
How old is the name Lam?
Lam first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Lam alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 500 people named Lam are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lam most popular?
Lam peaked in 1983, reaching #1955 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,053 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lâm to Lam
The story of Lam
Lâm is a family name as often as a given name in Vietnam, and there the family name comes first — which is where the trouble starts on an American form built for the opposite order. Names get swapped, split or duplicated, and a family name ends up recorded as a first name. The American record for this name begins in earnest after 1975, with the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees, and it is one of a group of short Vietnamese names that entered US statistics together for reasons that had nothing to do with naming fashion and everything to do with the end of a war.
Meaning
forest, woodland
From the character read lâm in Vietnamese and lin in Mandarin, written as two tree characters together. The Vietnamese name carries a circumflex and a tone that the American spelling drops, and without them the word is technically incomplete — a real loss, since Vietnamese distinguishes meanings by tone.
How the name formed
- Lâm
- Lam
Related forms: Lâm · Lin · Lam · Im
Pronouncing Lam
LAHM
One syllable with an open vowel, closer to the a in calm than to the a in lamb. Vietnamese adds a tone that English cannot show and most English speakers cannot hear, and the name is understood without it here.
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
- 1977
- Most boys named
- 198327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1955reached in 1983
- Change vs 2024
- −37.5%5 in 2025, from 8
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.
Lam in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lâm in Vietnamese — same name
- Lin in Mandarin Chinese — related form
- Lam in Cantonese — transliteration
- Im in Korean — related form
Lams among us
people named Lam are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Lam
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dany test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lam's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dany climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dany's path sketches the road Lam is walking now.
Lam 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
Lam beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lam in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable — it fits any form and survives any accent.
- It is written with a character whose meaning is visible in its shape, which is a pleasure to explain.
- The same character is a common name across Vietnam, China and Korea, so it is recognized very widely.
- The diacritic and tone are lost in American use, and with them a real part of the name.
- English readers hear it as the animal, since lamb and lam sound identical in most American speech.
- Because it is also a family name, paperwork will occasionally file it in the wrong field.
- Nearly every child recorded with this spelling in America is a boy, though the name is not exclusively a man's in Vietnam.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lam to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Lam? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lam
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lams are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Lam are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lam in 2025?
- Lam ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lam?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Lam — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lam with classmates?
- Lam will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lam
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lam? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lam and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle