Lavern
Feminine · “the alder tree”
Lavern is given to both — 6,845 girls and 10,236 boys since 1880. See Lavern as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Lavern is a tree, and it is also a Roman goddess with an unusual portfolio. La verne is French for the alder — the water-loving tree that gives Vernon its name. Laverna, quite separately, was the Roman deity of thieves, and she had an altar in Rome and a gate named after her.
How old is the name Lavern?
Lavern first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Lavern alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 3,400 people named Lavern are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lavern most popular?
Lavern peaked in 1926, reaching #593 nationally. See the whole 1926 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From verne to Lavern
The story of Lavern
Laverna is one of the odder survivals from Roman religion: she was invoked by thieves, had an altar near a gate that took her name, and appears in Horace, where a thief asks her for the appearance of honesty. Nothing about her cult is well understood. The name that reached American use is almost certainly the French one instead, arriving through Vernon and the alder, and it spread widely in the early twentieth century among German-American and midwestern families in particular. It goes to boys and girls both, and the spelling has never settled between Lavern, LaVerne and Laverne.
Meaningscholars disagree
the alder tree
Norman French vern or verne is an alder, from a Gaulish word, and it gives the place name Vernon and the surname behind it — a place where alders grow. La verne, with the article, is the likelier source of this name. The other candidate is Laverna, a minor Roman goddess associated with thieves and with the underworld, whose name is genuinely recorded and whose derivation is itself unknown. The tree reading has the better paper trail.
How the name formed
- verne
- Vernon
- Lavern
Related forms: Laverne · Laverna
Pronouncing Lavern
luh-VURN
luh-VURN, two syllables, stress at the back, the first vowel almost swallowed. Laverne with a final e is said identically, and LaVerne with a capital in the middle is too — the three spellings differ only on the page.
Nicknames for Lavern
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 1956161 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #593reached in 1926
- Change vs 1994
- +40.0%7 in 2006, 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.
Lavern in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laverne in French — same name
- Laverna in Latin — related form
Laverns among us
people named Lavern 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
Lavern 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
- Vern is a ready short form that works for either child.
- The alder derivation is concrete and traceable through a real French place name.
- The stress at the end balances well against a front-stressed surname.
- Laverne is the more common spelling and the final e will be added by most people writing from memory.
- The name is very strongly associated with the oldest living generations.
- It goes to girls nearly as often as to boys, so it settles nothing on a form.
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Lavern
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Laverns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Lavern are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lavern in 2025?
- Lavern is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lavern with classmates?
- Lavern will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lavern? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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