Laura: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Laura has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 803,566 births with this name, split between 800,987 girls and 2,579 boys. Because the larger side of that split is girls, this page follows the girls ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Laura was 1964, when 18,967 girls received the name and it reached rank 14 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1964, Laura accounted for 1.00% of all recorded girls births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Laura by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Laura becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Laura can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

During the 1880s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 17 and 12,806 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1890s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 27 and 16,433 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1900s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 43 and 15,532 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1910s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 53 and 30,549 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1920s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 63 and 35,991 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1930s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 88 and 25,093 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 65 and 35,071 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1950s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 29 and 95,527 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table.

In the 1960s, Laura was a top-ten name for girls, reaching as high as rank 10 and recording 174,181 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. During the 1970s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 13 and 118,207 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 14 and 134,611 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1990s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 29 and 67,251 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2000s, Laura stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 85 and 25,036 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 2010s, Laura recorded 10,440 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 271, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Laura recorded 4,259 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 357, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among girls, and the share of all girls births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 1,214 to 868, a change of -28.5 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Laura stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Laura recorded 3,740 births for girls, and in 2010 it recorded 1,214. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Laura also appears on the boys side of the file, with 2,579 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 800,987 births recorded for girls, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the girls table only. Counting both sides together, Laura totals 803,566 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 66 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among girls and a rank earned among boys describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Laura with the full rankings for its peak year (1964) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Laura were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 868 girls named Laura, ranked 359 among girls that year.

When was Laura most popular?
Laura peaked in 1964 with 18,967 births for girls, reaching rank 14 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Laura appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 803,566 births named Laura from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/