Lemar
Masculine · “of the pool”
Lemar takes the French masculine article rather than the feminine one, and that single letter distinguishes it from Lamar. Both descend from the same Huguenot surname, de la Mare, of the pool; American naming reanalysed the phrase and treated La- and Le- as interchangeable prefixes. Its peak is 1900.
How old is the name Lemar?
Lemar first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Lemar alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 1,400 people named Lemar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lemar most popular?
Lemar peaked in 1900, reaching #1162 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,981 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mare to Lemar
The story of Lemar
Huguenot families fled France in large numbers after 1685 and a substantial number reached the American colonies, particularly South Carolina and Virginia. The Lamars were among them and became prominent in the South. When the surname became a given name in the nineteenth century, American speakers heard La- as a detachable prefix — which it is, grammatically, though not in this word — and the alternative Le- appeared alongside it. Both spellings are in the record by 1900, and both went on to become productive fronts in African-American naming through the twentieth century.
Meaning
of the pool, or of the marsh
Old French mare means a pool or standing water — the same word as English mere, and unrelated to Latin mare, 'sea', despite looking identical. De la Mare identified a family living by such a pool, and it compressed into Lamar and Lemar. The le and la of the modern spellings are the French definite articles, masculine and feminine, and mare is feminine — so Lamar is grammatically correct and Lemar is not. Neither spelling is wrong as a name.
How the name formed
- mare
- de la Mare
- Lamar
- Lemar
Related forms: Lamar · Delamare
Pronouncing Lemar
luh-MAR
Two syllables, stress at the end, rhyming with car. Identical to Lamar in fast American speech, where the first vowel of both reduces to a schwa — which is why the two spellings are so easily confused.
Nicknames for Lemar
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 197851 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1162reached in 1900
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%14 in 2025, from 14
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.
Lemar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lamar in English — spelling variant
- Delamare in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Lemars among us
people named Lemar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Lemar
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
Lemar 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
Lemar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lemar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and its Huguenot history is genuinely documented.
- Lem and Mar are both usable short forms.
- The pronunciation is obvious to any English reader.
- Lamar is far the more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
- The two spellings are indistinguishable in speech.
- Its American curve is turn-of-the-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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Lemar
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lemars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Lemar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lemar in 2025?
- Lemar ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lemar?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Lemar — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lemar with classmates?
- Lemar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lemar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lemar? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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