Humanverse

Laurel vs Lauro

American parents have registered 48,973 Laurels since 1880, against 2,180 Lauros. Laurel is still ahead, with 372 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Laurel against Lauro, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Laurel Lauro

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

Laurel has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1883 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1913, when Laurel had 52 and Lauro had 12.

Side by side

  Laurel Lauro
Total US births 48,9732,180
Most in one year 1,19748
Babies in 2025 37220
Estimated living today 39,0001,700
Median age today 4935
Peak year 19562000
Best rank 241st girls2,087th boys
Rank in 2025 734th4,857th
First recorded 18831912
Girls / boys 47,113 / 1,8600 / 2,180

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 Laurels alive today are over 49; half the Lauros are over 35. That is 14 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: Laurel and Lauro.