Lazarus
Masculine · “God has helped”
Lazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, and it has been read aloud in churches for two thousand years — the man called out of the tomb in John's Gospel, and the beggar at the rich man's gate in Luke. Three syllables with the stress up front, it has been on American birth records since the earliest years such records were kept, never crowded, never gone.
How old is the name Lazarus?
Lazarus first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Lazarus alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 3,700 people named Lazarus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lazarus most popular?
Lazarus peaked in 1882, reaching #943 nationally. Today it ranks #1141, 198 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Where it comes from
From Eleazar to Lazarus
The story of Lazarus
The name begins as Eleazar in Hebrew, borne in the Hebrew Bible by a son of Aaron. Greek-speaking Jews shortened and reshaped it to Lazaros, and it is in that form that it reaches the New Testament, where two different men carry it: the brother of Martha and Mary, and the beggar in the parable told in Luke. Latin took it as Lazarus, and from there it spread across Christian Europe — Lazare in France, Lázaro in Spain and Portugal, Lazzaro in Italy, Lazar through the Slavic world. It also passed into medieval vocabulary: the leper hospitals called lazar houses and lazarettos took their name from the beggar of the parable.
Meaning
God has helped
Lazarus is the Greek and Latin rendering of Hebrew Eleazar, from El (God) and azar (to help).
How the name formed
- Eleazar
- Lazaros
- Lazarus
- Lázaro
- Lazare
Related forms: Lázaro · Lazzaro · Lazare · Lazaros · Lazar · Eleazar
Pronouncing Lazarus
LAZ-uh-rus
Stress on the first syllable, with the middle vowel reduced. The Spanish Lázaro (LAH-sah-ro) and Italian Lazzaro shift the sound noticeably, which is worth knowing in a bilingual family.
Nicknames for Lazarus
High
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 2025185 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #943reached in 1882
- Change vs 2023
- +38.1%185 in 2025, from 134
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.
Lazarus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lázaro in Spanish — same name
- Lazzaro in Italian — same name
- Lazare in French — same name
- Lazaros in Greek — same name
- Lazar in Serbian and Russian — same name
- Eleazar in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Lazaruss among us
people named Lazarus are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,233 born in 2025 was named Lazarus
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Lazarus 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
Where Lazarus is headed
Lazarus should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Lazarus beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lazarus in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is fixed and widely recognized from scripture, so it rarely needs to be spelled out twice.
- Laz gives an easy one-syllable short form, and the full name stays available for anything formal.
- It exists in a settled form in Spanish, Italian, French, Greek and the Slavic languages, so it travels without being remade.
- An unbroken written record stretching back to Greek antiquity, and on American birth records for well over a century.
- The resurrection story comes with the name and will not be shed. Expect the reference from teachers, strangers and classmates who know it — and the phrases built on it, from the Lazarus effect in medicine to Lazarus species in biology.
- The same story gave English the archaic word lazar for a leper, and lazaretto for a quarantine hospital. Few people meet those words now, but they are in dictionaries.
- A child named Lazarus will almost certainly be the only one at school. That means no last-initial problem, and also a lifetime of being the first Lazarus most people have met.
- At three syllables with a strong opening beat, it sits heavily beside very short surnames; saying the whole thing out loud with yours is worth a minute.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lazarus
Masculine · #1141 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lazaruss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Lazarus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lazarus in 2025?
- Lazarus ranks #1141 among US boy names in 2025, with 185 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lazarus?
- About 1 in every 9,233 US boys born in 2025 was named Lazarus — 185 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lazarus with classmates?
- Lazarus will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lazarus
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cain#1141 · Zen#1141 · Adiel#1141 · Ansel#1138 · Stellan#1138 · Isai#1138 · Kenan#1145 · Sol#1145
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lazarus? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lazarus and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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