Lamar
Feminine · “of the pool”
Lamar is given to both — 1,284 girls and 33,967 boys since 1880. See Lamar as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Lamar is a French place-name surname that came to America with Huguenot refugees and became, three centuries later, one of the most productive naming elements in the country. De la mare means of the pool. Its use on American girls peaks in 1911, well before its much larger career on boys.
How old is the name Lamar?
Lamar first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Lamar alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,100 people named Lamar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lamar most popular?
Lamar peaked in 1911, reaching #2463 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 3,653 places below that high. See the whole 1911 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mare to Lamar
The story of Lamar
Huguenot families left France in large numbers after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and a substantial number reached the American colonies, particularly South Carolina, Virginia and New York. The Lamars were among them and became prominent in the South: Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was the second president of the Republic of Texas and is called the father of Texas education; Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar sat on the Supreme Court. The surname became a given name in the nineteenth century, used on both sexes, and later became one of the most productive fronts in African-American naming.
Meaning
of the pool, or of the marsh
Old French mare means a pool or a stagnant body of water — the same word as English mere and unrelated to the Latin mare, 'sea', despite the resemblance. De la Mare identified a family living by such a pool, and the phrase compressed into Lamar and Delamare. The English poet Walter de la Mare carried the uncompressed form. The derivation is settled.
How the name formed
- mare
- de la Mare
- Lamar
Related forms: Delamare · Lamarr
Pronouncing Lamar
luh-MAR
Two syllables, stress at the end, rhyming with car. A front-stressed LAY-mar is also heard on some American bearers. The end-stressed version follows the French and is much the more common.
Nicknames for Lamar
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
- 201659 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2463reached in 1911
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%19 in 2025, from 19
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.
Lamar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Delamare in French — related form
- Lamarr in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan, California, Illinois.
Lamars among us
people named Lamar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Lamar
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Lamar 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
Lamar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lamar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and its Huguenot history is genuinely documented.
- It is short, phonetic and unambiguous to any English reader.
- It works on either sex, with real American use on both.
- In current use it is overwhelmingly male and will be read that way.
- Lamar and Lamarr both circulate.
- Its American curve on girls is early-twentieth-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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Lamar
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lamars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Lamar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lamar in 2025?
- Lamar ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lamar?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Lamar — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lamar with classmates?
- Lamar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lamar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lamar? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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