Lan
Lan was last recorded in 2025, when 8 babies were given it; 1,087 Americans have been recorded with it between 1948 and 2025 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,040 Americans named Lan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 28 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lan mean?
Wiktionary, Vietnamese section
Lan is “a female given name from Chinese”
Also “a female given name from Chinese, a middle name”
Sino-Vietnamese word from 蘭.
[laːn˧˧]
Meaning: Wiktionary, Vietnamese section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lan?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #16,922, in 2019; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
62 babies in 1981, the peak
Lan peaked in 1981, when 62 babies were given it (43 girls, #2,323 among girls’ names). The 8 births of 2025 are 13% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 8 | #9,368 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 9 | #8,700 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 5 | #13,352 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 5 | #13,506 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 6 | #11,558 | |
| 2019 | 5 | #16,922 | 6 | #11,571 |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,032 | 8 | #9,297 |
| 2016 | 6 | #15,395 | 5 | #13,384 |
| 2015 | 5 | #17,948 | under 5 | |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,696 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 7 | #13,990 | under 5 | |
| 2012 | 13 | #8,912 | under 5 | |
| 2011 | 6 | #15,900 | 5 | #13,504 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,932 | under 5 | |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,553 | under 5 | |
| 2008 | 14 | #8,766 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 9 | #11,986 | 6 | #11,457 |
| 2005 | 7 | #13,816 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,336 | 6 | #10,782 |
| 2003 | 6 | #14,908 | 7 | #9,228 |
| 2002 | 7 | #12,985 | 7 | #8,999 |
| 2001 | 11 | #9,086 | under 5 | |
| 2000 | 21 | #5,405 | 5 | #11,433 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,992 | 5 | #10,894 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,660 | under 5 | |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,526 | 5 | #10,156 |
| 1996 | 13 | #6,950 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,451 | 6 | #8,421 |
| 1994 | 27 | #3,955 | 6 | #8,351 |
| 1993 | 18 | #5,331 | 5 | #9,560 |
| 1992 | 24 | #4,307 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 31 | #3,484 | 5 | #9,001 |
| 1990 | 24 | #4,167 | 5 | #8,911 |
| 1989 | 23 | #4,188 | 10 | #5,020 |
| 1988 | 20 | #4,393 | 10 | #4,621 |
| 1987 | 30 | #3,132 | 7 | #5,821 |
| 1986 | 30 | #3,091 | 13 | #3,560 |
| 1985 | 28 | #3,201 | 19 | #2,651 |
| 1984 | 39 | #2,442 | 6 | #6,016 |
| 1983 | 44 | #2,215 | 8 | #4,728 |
| 1982 | 47 | #2,170 | 11 | #3,828 |
| 1981 | 43 | #2,323 | 19 | #2,543 |
| 1980 | 32 | #2,833 | 5 | #6,815 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,845 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 27 | #2,986 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 16 | #4,326 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 12 | #5,049 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 13 | #4,724 | 5 | #5,945 |
| 1974 | under 5 | 5 | #5,649 | |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,700 | 9 | #3,499 |
| 1971 | under 5 | 11 | #3,073 | |
| 1970 | under 5 | 8 | #3,691 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 5 | #4,465 | |
| 1967 | under 5 | 5 | #4,290 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 6 | #3,786 | |
| 1956 | under 5 | 6 | #3,750 | |
| 1955 | under 5 | 7 | #3,353 | |
| 1953 | under 5 | 5 | #4,103 | |
| 1950 | under 5 | 7 | #3,192 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 6 | #3,502 |
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 Lan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,087 Americans recorded as Lan, 71% are girls and 29% boys. In 2025 it went to 8 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Lan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lan, and how old are they?
1,040 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,087 Americans ever recorded as Lan. The median Lan alive today is 39 years old; half are between 28 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 14,674 people named Lan (12,994 women and girls, 1,680 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,017 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Lan rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 23 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 169 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 564 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 194 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 85 |
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 Lan born?
The states with the most babies named Lan are California, Texas and Kansas, with 98% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Kansas is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 185 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Texas | 49 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Kansas | 5 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Louisiana | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Lan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Lan is most over-represented in California: since 1948 it was given 1.3 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 Lan 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,312 babies since 1880, Lan is the second most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 337 babies (2.4%), again the second 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 Lan
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 Lan and names like it
- Compare Lan and LayanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sLan peaked in 1981.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lan since 1910.
- Chinese namesWiktionary’s origin for Lan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1981The year the most babies were named Lan.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Lan alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with LMost given first.