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Lamar vs Lamarcus

American parents have registered 35,251 Lamars since 1880, against 3,008 Lamarcuses. Lamar is still ahead, with 134 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lamar against Lamarcus, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lamar Lamarcus

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lamar has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Lamar had 251 and Lamarcus had 67.

Side by side

  Lamar Lamarcus
Total US births 35,2513,008
Most in one year 74899
Babies in 2025 13414
Estimated living today 26,0002,900
Median age today 3930
Peak year 19891989
Best rank 325th boys1,037th boys
Rank in 2025 1,514th6,143rd
First recorded 18821967
Girls / boys 1,284 / 33,9670 / 3,008

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lamars alive today are over 39; half the Lamarcuses are over 30. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lamar and Lamarcus.