Lema
Lema was given to 7 girls in 2025, #12,619 among girls’ names; 380 Americans have been recorded with it since 1890 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lema by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Lema?
#12,619 among girls’ names, 2025
Lema entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #12,619 in 2025.
17 babies in 1915, the peak
Lema peaked in 1915, when 17 girls were given it, #1,920 among girls’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 41% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,619 | 4.4 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,789 | 4.9 |
| 2021 | 6 | #14,490 | 3.7 |
| 2020 | 5 | #16,499 | 3.1 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,728 | 4.0 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,127 | 2.8 |
| 2012 | 6 | #16,051 | 3.4 |
| 2009 | 6 | #16,371 | 3.3 |
| 2007 | 8 | #13,373 | 4.2 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,989 | 3.5 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 5 | #5,649 | 2.9 |
| 1940 | 6 | #4,122 | 5.2 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,684 | 4.5 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,564 | 6.7 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,646 | 6.7 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,444 | 7.5 |
| 1931 | 9 | #3,110 | 8.5 |
| 1929 | 6 | #4,345 | 5.4 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,991 | 6.1 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,432 | 7.5 |
| 1925 | 10 | #3,249 | 8.2 |
| 1924 | 10 | #3,263 | 8.0 |
| 1923 | 16 | #2,322 | 13.3 |
| 1922 | 9 | #3,528 | 7.5 |
| 1921 | 13 | #2,711 | 10.5 |
| 1920 | 13 | #2,671 | 10.8 |
| 1919 | 14 | #2,447 | 12.4 |
| 1918 | 16 | #2,246 | 13.8 |
| 1917 | 15 | #2,261 | 13.9 |
| 1916 | 5 | #4,808 | 4.8 |
| 1915 | 17 | #1,920 | 17.3 |
| 1914 | 10 | #2,350 | 13.1 |
| 1913 | 12 | #1,837 | 19.2 |
| 1912 | 11 | #1,784 | 19.7 |
| 1911 | 9 | #1,723 | 21.5 |
| 1908 | 7 | #1,769 | 20.9 |
| 1907 | 7 | #1,729 | 22.0 |
| 1905 | 7 | #1,616 | 24.0 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,775 | 21.8 |
| 1900 | 6 | #1,836 | 20.0 |
| 1899 | 6 | #1,507 | 25.7 |
| 1898 | 8 | #1,321 | 30.9 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,674 | 21.3 |
| 1895 | 9 | #1,168 | 38.5 |
| 1890 | 6 | #1,279 | 31.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lema a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lema has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Lema: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lema, and how old are they?
An estimated 76 Americans named Lema and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 352 people named Lema (310 women and girls, 42 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 68 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 5 names spelled alike, given to 2,015 babies since 1880, Lema is the second most given (19% of them).
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 Lema
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 Lema and names like it
- Compare Lema and LeomaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sLema peaked in 1915.
- Mississippi’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lema since 1910.
- The top names of 1915The year the most babies were named Lema.
- Names starting with LMost given first.