Lamar

Lamar is the 3,171st most common surname in the United States, shared by 11,113 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 26,900.

By the numbers

People: 11,113
Rank: 3,171st
How common: 1 in 26,900
Per 100,000: 3.7

Where the name comes from

Origin Old French

From a placename in Normandy, which was derived from Old French la mare (“the pool”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Lamar described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 49.4%
Black, not Hispanic 37.4%
Hispanic or Latino 7.3%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Lamar

Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798–1859)American politician
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1825–1893)American lawyer, politician and judge

People named Lamar with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Lamar

Also a first name

Lamar has been given to 35,251 American babies as a first name since 1882, peaking in 1989. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.