Laurel
Masculine · “the bay laurel”
Laurel is given to both — 1,860 boys and 47,113 girls since 1880. See Laurel as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Of all the names in this family, only this one is the plain English word. Laura, Lauren and Laurie are names and nothing else; Laurel is a shrub you can buy at a garden center, and it is the only member of the set a reader could look up in a dictionary rather than a name book.
How old is the name Laurel?
Laurel first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Laurel alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 500 people named Laurel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laurel most popular?
Laurel peaked in 1926, reaching #783 nationally. See the whole 1926 chart.
Where it comes from
From laurus to Laurel
The story of Laurel
It is the only thing in a kitchen cupboard that also crowned emperors. Bay leaves are an entirely ordinary cooking ingredient, dropped into stocks and stews and fished out again, and the tree they come from is the tree that was made into wreaths for victorious generals, winning athletes and honored poets. No other plant occupies both positions. The reason is that the leaves keep their form when dried, which made them good for garlands, and that they carry a strong aromatic oil, which made them good for food — two useful properties of one leaf, pointing in completely different directions.
Meaning
the bay laurel
The English name of the tree, from the Latin. The plant is the one used for wreaths and the one whose leaves go into a stew, and those are the same species despite the distance between the two uses.
How the name formed
- laurus
- laurel
- Laurel
Pronouncing Laurel
LOR-ul
Two syllables with the stress at the front and the second reduced. Some speakers say LAR-ul, which is a regional difference rather than an error.
Nicknames for Laurel
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
- 1887
- Most boys named
- 192669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #783reached in 1926
- Change vs 1992
- +20.0%6 in 2022, 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.
Laurels among us
people named Laurel 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
Laurel 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
- The meaning is concrete, visible and needs no explaining.
- It has stayed in steady use for over a century without a fashion behind it.
- The spelling is short and gives no trouble.
- It is an ordinary English noun and will be read as one.
- Laurel and Lauryl and Loral all appear and the spelling occasionally gets queried.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Laurel
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Laurels 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 Laurel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Laurel in 2025?
- Laurel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Laurel with classmates?
- Laurel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laurel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Laurel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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