Lyman
Masculine · “man of the meadow”
Lyman is the man from the meadow. It is one of the plainest English surnames there is — a description of where somebody lived, turned into a family name and then into a first name.
How old is the name Lyman?
Lyman was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lyman alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 2,600 people named Lyman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lyman most popular?
Lyman peaked in 1882, reaching #267 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,428 places below that high. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From leah + mann to Lyman
The story of Lyman
Topographic surnames of this kind — Lyman, Bridgeman, Wellman, Hillman — describe a neighbor by where his house stood, and they are among the oldest layers of the English surname system. Lyman crossed into given-name use in New England, where several colonial families carried it, and it spread from there through nineteenth-century America, peaking around 1885.
Meaning
man of the meadow
From the Old English leah, 'clearing' or 'meadow', and mann, 'man' — so someone who lived by the clearing. The leah element is the commonest in English place names, and this surname is one of the few that uses it as a free-standing word rather than as an ending.
How the name formed
- leah + mann
- Lyman
Related forms: Leyman · Layman
Pronouncing Lyman
LY-mun
Two syllables, stress on the first, long i. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Lyman
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1921201 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #267reached in 1882
- Change vs 2021
- −45.5%6 in 2025, from 11
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.
Lyman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leyman in English — spelling variant
- Layman in English — spelling variant
Lymans among us
people named Lyman are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Lyman
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
Lyman 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
Lyman beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lyman 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 completely transparent once the leah element is explained.
- Two firm syllables that pair well with almost any surname.
- It carries a documented New England colonial history.
- It reads as a surname to many people, which is what it was for eight hundred years.
- It is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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Lyman
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lymans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Lyman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lyman in 2025?
- Lyman ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lyman?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Lyman — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lyman with classmates?
- Lyman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lyman
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dudley#10695 · Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lyman? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lyman and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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