Lemma
Lemma was last recorded in 1948, when 5 babies were given it; 262 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lemma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lemma mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Lemma is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lemma?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,650, in 1948; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1918, the peak
Lemma peaked in 1918, when 13 girls were given it, #2,595 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 5 | #5,650 | 2.9 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,348 | 3.2 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,017 | 3.7 |
| 1941 | 6 | #4,206 | 5.0 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,613 | 4.7 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,569 | 5.0 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,478 | 5.2 |
| 1927 | 11 | #2,969 | 9.2 |
| 1925 | 13 | #2,703 | 10.7 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,240 | 5.6 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1923 | 6 | #4,709 | 5.0 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,422 | 4.2 |
| 1921 | 8 | #3,856 | 6.5 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,685 | 5.0 |
| 1919 | 12 | #2,738 | 10.6 |
| 1918 | 13 | #2,595 | 11.2 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,538 | 7.4 |
| 1916 | 12 | #2,578 | 11.5 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,765 | 10.5 |
| 1913 | 12 | #1,838 | 19.2 |
| 1912 | 11 | #1,785 | 19.7 |
| 1910 | 6 | #2,289 | 15.1 |
| 1909 | 9 | #1,541 | 25.9 |
| 1908 | 6 | #1,982 | 17.9 |
| 1905 | 5 | #2,093 | 17.1 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,776 | 21.8 |
| 1902 | 6 | #1,712 | 22.7 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,832 | 19.3 |
| 1895 | 8 | #1,252 | 34.2 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,543 | 23.5 |
| 1892 | 7 | #1,224 | 33.0 |
| 1891 | 9 | #974 | 48.5 |
| 1888 | 5 | #1,386 | 28.0 |
| 1885 | 5 | #1,129 | 37.6 |
| 1882 | 6 | #859 | 55.6 |
| 1880 | 5 | #887 | 54.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lemma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lemma has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 36 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Lemma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lemma, and how old are they?
An estimated 15 Americans named Lemma 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 170 people named Lemma (93 women and girls, 77 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 25 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.8 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, Lemma is the third most given (13% 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 Lemma
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 Lemma and names like it
- Compare Lemma and LeomaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sLemma peaked in 1918.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Lemma.
- Names starting with LMost given first.