Larsen
Masculine · “son of Lars”
Larsen is given to both — 539 boys and 187 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
One letter tells you which country. Denmark and Norway form patronymic surnames with -sen; Sweden uses -son. Larsen is Danish or Norwegian, Larsson is Swedish, and they are otherwise the same word.
How old is the name Larsen?
Larsen first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Larsen alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 500 people named Larsen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Larsen most popular?
Larsen peaked in 2000, reaching #3299 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 3,504 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Laurentius to Larsen
The story of Larsen
Scandinavian surnames were true patronymics until the nineteenth century, changing every generation exactly as Icelandic ones still do, and they froze into hereditary surnames under state pressure between about 1820 and 1920. Because the pool of first names in use was small, the resulting surnames are few and enormously common: Hansen, Larsen, Nielsen, Jensen and Pedersen account for a large share of the Danish population. Larsen reached America with Scandinavian migration to the upper midwest, and its use as a given name is recent, belonging to the general fashion for surname names; its best year in United States records is 2000.
Meaning
son of Lars, from a Roman name meaning from Laurentum
Lars is the Scandinavian form of Laurentius, from the Italian town of Laurentum, whose name is generally connected to laurus, the bay tree. The -sen ending is son of. The Danish and Norwegian -sen and the Swedish -son diverged in spelling as the countries standardized their orthographies in the nineteenth century.
How the name formed
- Laurentius
- Lars
- Larsen
Related forms: Larsson · Larsen · Larsen · Larusson
Pronouncing Larsen
LAR-sen
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Danish reduces the second vowel almost to nothing; English gives it a full e.
Nicknames for Larsen
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
- 1956
- Most boys named
- 200025 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3299reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −14.3%12 in 2025, from 14
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.
Larsen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Larsson in Swedish — spelling variant
- Larsen in Danish — same name
- Larsen in Norwegian — same name
- Larusson in Icelandic — related form
Larsens among us
people named Larsen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Larsen
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 Zalman test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Larsen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zalman climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zalman's path sketches the road Larsen is walking now.
Larsen 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
Larsen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Larsen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine Scandinavian patronymic with a documented Latin ancestor.
- Lars is available inside it and is a complete name of its own.
- Marks a Danish or Norwegian heritage clearly.
- It reads as a surname, which is what it is.
- Larson and Larsen are both used in America and differ by nationality.
- The -sen ending is Danish and Norwegian, not Swedish, which some families care about.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Larsen
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Larsens 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 Larsen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Larsen in 2025?
- Larsen ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Larsen?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Larsen — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Larsen with classmates?
- Larsen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Larsen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Larsen? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Larsen and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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