Lamarr
Masculine · “French la mare”
Lamarr is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,896 boys against 30 girls since 1880.
Hedy Lamarr co-patented frequency hopping in 1942, a method of moving a radio signal between frequencies so it cannot be jammed. The Navy ignored it. The principle is now in every mobile phone and wireless network in the world. Her name was assigned to her by a studio; she was born Hedwig Kiesler.
How old is the name Lamarr?
Lamarr first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Lamarr alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 2,400 people named Lamarr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lamarr most popular?
Lamarr peaked in 1984, reaching #1042 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 7,201 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From la mare to Lamarr
The story of Lamarr
The patent, filed with the composer George Antheil and granted in 1942, describes a system for guiding a torpedo by radio while switching frequencies in a pattern known to both transmitter and receiver, so that an enemy cannot jam the signal without jamming every frequency at once. The mechanism they proposed used a device based on a player piano roll, which is Antheil's contribution. The Navy declined to develop it and the patent expired unused; the principle was independently rediscovered and became foundational to spread-spectrum communication, which underlies Bluetooth, wifi and mobile telephony. Lamarr received no money and little recognition in her lifetime and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, fourteen years after her death. The surname she carried while doing it was picked by a publicist.
Meaningscholars disagree
French la mare, the pool
Lamar is a French surname, generally read as la mare, the pool or pond, and it entered American use through French settlers. It is separately an American prefix coinage joining La- to Mar, in which case it has no meaning at all. The two are indistinguishable in the data. Lamarr with a doubled r follows the film actress, whose name was chosen for her by a studio in 1937. It peaks in 1984.
How the name formed
- la mare
- Lamar
- Lamarr
Related forms: Lamar · Lamare
Pronouncing Lamarr
luh-MAR
Two syllables, stress on the second. The doubled r changes nothing audible. Lamar and Lamarr are homophones and the difference is entirely on paper.
Nicknames for Lamarr
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 198369 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1042reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- +28.6%9 in 2025, from 7
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.
Lamarr in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lamar in English — spelling variant
- Lamare in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan.
Lamarrs among us
people named Lamarr are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Lamarr
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lamarr
- #8243
- Lamarr on the 2025 chart
- #804
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lamarr went to 9 boys in 2025, but Lamar is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 124, which makes it the 804th most-given boys’ name of the year — 7,439 places above the chart.
- Lamar115
- Lamarr9
About 1 boy in 13,775 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 189,786 for Lamarr 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 Christine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lamarr's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christine climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christine's path sketches the road Lamarr is walking now.
Lamarr 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
Lamarr beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lamarr in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The back stress is clear and consistent.
- It has a genuine French surname history alongside the American one.
- Mar works as a short form.
- Lamar with one r is more common.
- Which of two origins applies is not recoverable.
- The name is closely associated with the mid twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Lamarr
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lamarrs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Lamarr are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lamarr?
- Lamarr is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lamar is the more common one — 115 births in 2025 against 9 for Lamarr.
- How popular is the name Lamarr in 2025?
- Lamarr ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lamarr?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Lamarr — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lamarr with classmates?
- Lamarr will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lamarr
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lamarr? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lamarr and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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