Laura
Laura is ranked 359th among girls in 2024 (868 births). Its best rank was 10th, in 1969.
- Rank in 2024
- #359up 3 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 8680.05% of girls
- Peak year
- 196418,967 births
- Best rank
- #10in 1969
- Since 1880
- 803,566people given the name
The story in the numbers
800,987 girls have been named Laura in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1964, with 18,967 births — 1.0% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 868 births in 2024, against 18,967 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1967, and the 1960s alone account for 22%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 112 of them in the top 100 and 1 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 2,579 boys have also been given it, 0.32% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Laura | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 12,806 | |
| 1890s | 16,433 | |
| 1900s | 15,532 | |
| 1910s | 30,549 | |
| 1920s | 35,991 | |
| 1930s | 25,093 | |
| 1940s | 35,071 | |
| 1950s | 95,527 | |
| 1960s | 174,181 | |
| 1970s | 118,207 | |
| 1980s | 134,611 | |
| 1990s | 67,251 | |
| 2000s | 25,036 | |
| 2010s | 10,440 | |
| 2020s | 4,259 |
In 1964, its biggest year
Laura was the 14th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1964 were Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen and Patricia. See all of 1964.
Names that rose and fell with Laura
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Cammiepeak 1968
- Letitiapeak 1964
- Malindapeak 1969
- Nenapeak 1963
- Lorapeak 1963
- Kathrinepeak 1956
- Rosannapeak 1982
- Susannapeak 1958
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.