Lakota
Lakota is given to both girls and boys: 41 girls and 28 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,680 among girls’ names and #3,907 among boys’, #4,533 among all names counting both); 3,245 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Lakota every year since 2007.
An estimated 3,200 Americans named Lakota and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 11 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lakota by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Lakota?
#3,680 among girls’ names, 2025
Lakota fell from #3,414 in 2015 to #3,680 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 26.3 to 25.5 per million.
148 babies in 1997, the peak
Lakota peaked in 1997, when 148 babies were given it (80 girls, #1,857 among girls’ names). The 69 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 47% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 41 | #3,680 | 28 | #3,907 |
| 2024 | 26 | #5,091 | 31 | #3,653 |
| 2023 | 38 | #3,949 | 45 | #2,825 |
| 2022 | 35 | #4,161 | 36 | #3,309 |
| 2021 | 29 | #4,682 | 26 | #4,076 |
| 2020 | 46 | #3,367 | 37 | #3,103 |
| 2019 | 35 | #4,115 | 42 | #2,918 |
| 2018 | 35 | #4,115 | 38 | #3,077 |
| 2017 | 46 | #3,419 | 36 | #3,226 |
| 2016 | 38 | #3,966 | 41 | #2,913 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 47 | #3,414 | 44 | #2,744 |
| 2014 | 45 | #3,519 | 54 | #2,386 |
| 2013 | 63 | #2,747 | 49 | #2,505 |
| 2012 | 63 | #2,792 | 49 | #2,538 |
| 2011 | 38 | #3,968 | 45 | #2,686 |
| 2010 | 39 | #3,922 | 40 | #2,941 |
| 2009 | 57 | #3,023 | 55 | #2,370 |
| 2008 | 51 | #3,295 | 33 | #3,391 |
| 2007 | 56 | #3,112 | 44 | #2,747 |
| 2006 | 56 | #3,036 | 63 | #2,089 |
| 2005 | 60 | #2,768 | 62 | #2,022 |
| 2004 | 38 | #3,781 | 55 | #2,145 |
| 2003 | 44 | #3,320 | 52 | #2,140 |
| 2002 | 48 | #3,039 | 47 | #2,233 |
| 2001 | 49 | #2,941 | 45 | #2,261 |
| 2000 | 62 | #2,470 | 38 | #2,504 |
| 1999 | 63 | #2,354 | 49 | #1,977 |
| 1998 | 61 | #2,325 | 55 | #1,823 |
| 1997 | 80 | #1,857 | 68 | #1,528 |
| 1996 | 65 | #2,114 | 60 | #1,623 |
| 1995 | 63 | #2,137 | 45 | #1,898 |
| 1994 | 47 | #2,640 | 36 | #2,236 |
| 1993 | 30 | #3,632 | 38 | #2,108 |
| 1992 | 21 | #4,777 | 25 | #2,778 |
| 1991 | 30 | #3,581 | 20 | #3,173 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,676 | 8 | #6,162 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,301 | 6 | #7,495 |
| 1988 | 6 | #11,107 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 5 | #12,297 | 5 | #7,633 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,059 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,621 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 6 | #5,470 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Lakota a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,245 Americans recorded as Lakota, 52% are girls and 48% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Lakota: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lakota, and how old are they?
3,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,245 Americans ever recorded as Lakota. The median Lakota alive today is 20 years old; half are between 11 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 2,348 people named Lakota (1,277 women and girls, 1,071 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,816 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 6 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 528 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,640 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,020 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 6,402 babies since 1880, Lakota is the most given (51% of them). In 2025 it was given to 69 of their 69 babies (100%), 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 Lakota
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 Lakota and names like it
- Compare Lakota and LakitaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sLakota peaked in 1997.
- Oklahoma’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lakota since 1910.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Lakota.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Lakota alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with LMost given first.