Lavelle
Masculine
Lavelle is given to both — 2,481 boys and 1,588 girls since 1880. See Lavelle as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lavelle looks French and is Irish. It is the anglicized form of a Gaelic surname, produced by clerks who wrote down what they heard and reached for a spelling that looked like something they recognized. The ending it landed on is one English otherwise reads as feminine, which is why a name carried mostly by men looks, on paper, as though it should not be.
How old is the name Lavelle?
Lavelle first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Lavelle alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 2,000 people named Lavelle are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lavelle most popular?
Lavelle peaked in 1972, reaching #1230 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 5,573 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Irish devotional surname from the west of Ireland to Lavelle
The story of Lavelle
Gaelic surnames were converted into English by ear, and the conversions were done by people with no Irish and no incentive to be careful. The results are frequently unrecognizable: a long Gaelic name compressed into two syllables, and the two syllables spelled to look like something the clerk had seen before. That is how an Irish family name from Mayo ends up looking like a French one from the Loire. The ending is the part worth noticing. In English, that final syllable belongs to women's names almost exclusively, borrowed from French where it is a diminutive, and it has become so strongly marked that anything carrying it is read as feminine on sight. This name has carried it while remaining a man's name for a century, which puts it in a very small group.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Irish surname behind it is a devotional name of the kind Gaelic used, formed from a word meaning servant or devotee followed by a saint's name, and the saint in question is not securely identified. That makes the meaning partly recoverable and partly not. Where the name has instead been built as an American coinage from a prefix and an ending, which also happens, there is no meaning at all, and the spelling does not distinguish the two cases.
How the name formed
- An Irish devotional surname from the west of Ireland
- Anglicized by ear into a French-looking spelling
- Used as a first name in American families
- Recorded for both sexes, and mostly for sons
Pronouncing Lavelle
luh-VELL
Two syllables with the stress at the back and the first reduced almost to nothing. The doubled l and the final e are both French conventions on a name that is not French, and neither changes the sound.
Nicknames for Lavelle
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 198851 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1230reached in 1972
- Change vs 2023
- −20.0%12 in 2025, from 15
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.
Lavelle in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Lavelles among us
people named Lavelle are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Lavelle
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 Jearld test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lavelle's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jearld climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jearld's path sketches the road Lavelle is walking now.
Lavelle 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
Lavelle beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lavelle 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 gives it a strong shape and it is never mispronounced.
- It has a genuine Irish surname behind it, which is more history than most names of its shape carry.
- It works on the register for either child, and the record shows it doing so.
- The ending reads as feminine to English eyes, and that will not change.
- It is assumed French by nearly everybody, and the Irish history has to be told.
- The meaning is only partly recoverable, and honest about it is better than a guess.
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What they receive
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Lavelle
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lavelles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Lavelle are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lavelle in 2025?
- Lavelle ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lavelle?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Lavelle — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lavelle with classmates?
- Lavelle will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lavelle
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 Lavelle? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lavelle and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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