Lassie
Feminine · “a girl”
The name is older than the dog. Lassie was an ordinary American girls' name in the 1880s and 1890s, given in reasonable numbers, and the collie who took it over did not appear in print until the 1930s — so a generation of women carried the name before it belonged to anybody's television.
How old is the name Lassie?
Lassie first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Lassie alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 100 people named Lassie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lassie most popular?
Lassie peaked in 1891, reaching #727 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Scots and northern word for a girl to Lassie
The story of Lassie
The dog came out of a short story in a magazine, which became a novel, which became a film, which became a television series that ran for nearly twenty years. The name went with it completely: by the 1950s no American family would have used it for a daughter, and the record shows it gone. It is one of the clearest examples in the whole register of a fictional animal taking a name out of circulation — the same thing happened to Rover and Fido, which were ordinary words before they were dogs.
Meaning
a girl
The word is Scots and northern English for a girl, a diminutive of lass, and its own origin is uncertain — a Norse word for unmarried has been proposed. It was given as a name in America in the way that Colleen was: an affectionate word from another dialect of English, taken as a name by people who liked the sound and were not troubled by its meaning.
How the name formed
- a Scots and northern word for a girl
- given as an American name in the 1880s
- a collie appears in a magazine story in the 1930s
- a film and a long television series follow
- the name leaves human use entirely
Related forms: Lassie · Lass
Pronouncing Lassie
LASS-ee
Two syllables, stress at the front. There is no competing reading in any dialect.
Nicknames for Lassie
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
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 191642 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #727reached in 1891
- Change vs 1961
- 0.0%5 in 1963, from 5
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.
Lassie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lassie in Scots — same name
- Lass in English — related form
Lassies among us
people named Lassie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lassie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is warm, short and read correctly by everybody at sight.
- The word behind it is affectionate in every dialect that uses it.
- It has a genuine Scots history rather than an invented one.
- It is the name of the most famous dog in the world, and that cannot be undone.
- The word means girl, which is a plain thing to call a person.
- It has been out of human use for a century.
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Lassie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Lassies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Lassie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lassie in 2025?
- Lassie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lassie with classmates?
- Lassie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lassie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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