Lainey
Lainey was given to 5,738 girls in 2025, #30 among girls’ names; 28,431 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 28,200 Americans named Lainey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 3 years old and half are between 2 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lainey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lainey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Lainey is “a diminutive of the female given name Elaine.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lainey?
#30 among girls’ names, 2025
Lainey rose from #576 in 2015 to #30 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.30 to 3.6 per 1,000.
5,743 babies in 2025, the peak
Lainey peaked in 2025, when 5,743 babies were given it (5,738 girls, #30 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 5,156 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5,738 | #30 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 5,156 | #38 | 3.2 |
| 2023 | 3,941 | #54 | 2.5 |
| 2022 | 1,698 | #174 | 1.0 |
| 2021 | 1,229 | #250 | 0.75 |
| 2020 | 844 | #366 | 0.52 |
| 2019 | 822 | #381 | 0.49 |
| 2018 | 684 | #460 | 0.40 |
| 2017 | 615 | #510 | 0.36 |
| 2016 | 577 | #542 | 0.33 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 531 | #576 | 0.30 |
| 2014 | 514 | #585 | 0.29 |
| 2013 | 490 | #584 | 0.28 |
| 2012 | 516 | #568 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 544 | #533 | 0.31 |
| 2010 | 476 | #618 | 0.27 |
| 2009 | 416 | #700 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 433 | #698 | 0.23 |
| 2007 | 440 | #669 | 0.23 |
| 2006 | 388 | #725 | 0.20 |
| 2005 | 410 | #679 | 0.22 |
| 2004 | 320 | #796 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 254 | #928 | 0.14 |
| 2002 | 183 | #1,136 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 173 | #1,182 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 163 | #1,221 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 101 | #1,648 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 67 | #2,153 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 55 | #2,407 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 54 | #2,407 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 67 | #2,033 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 73 | #1,936 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 60 | #2,203 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 57 | #2,299 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 61 | #2,165 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 60 | #2,160 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 33 | #3,210 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 16 | #5,177 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 24 | #3,681 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 26 | #3,405 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 15 | #4,976 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 19 | #4,077 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 21 | #3,750 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,730 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 16 | #4,625 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,384 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,576 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,074 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,624 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lainey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lainey has been given almost only to girls: 10 boys in 49 years of records.
Girls and boys named Lainey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lainey, and how old are they?
28,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 28,431 Americans ever recorded as Lainey. The median Lainey alive today is 3 years old; half are between 2 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 9,421 people named Lainey (9,402 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,950 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 27 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 599 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,890 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 22,700 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Lainey born?
The states with the most babies named Lainey are Texas, Ohio and California, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 465 | #45 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 334 | #8 | 1.5× |
| California | 325 | #94 | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 281 | #13 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 250 | #9 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 243 | #59 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 209 | #24 | 1.0× |
| Indiana | 190 | #9 | 1.4× |
| Tennessee | 177 | #21 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 165 | #43 | 0.8× |
Where Lainey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Lainey is most over-represented in South Dakota: since 1968 it was given 1.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Lainey with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 58,837 babies since 1880, Lainey is the most given (48% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5,743 of their 6,720 babies (85%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Lainey
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Lainey and names like it
- Compare Lainey and LaneyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sLainey peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lainey since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Lainey.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Lainey alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with LMost given first.