# Lafayette (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/lafayette/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “the little beech tree” |
| Pronunciation | /ˌlæfiːˈɛt/, 3 syllables |
| Nicknames | Lafe, Fayette |
| Variant spellings | Fayette, Defayette, Delafayette |
| US babies named this | 4,882 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 4,861 / 21 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | not in the ONS data |

## Etymology

French surname from Occitan, "the little beech tree".

## What it means

Lafayette is grouped under forest.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 5 | 5,184 |
| 1934 | 5 | 4,639 |
| 1962 | 5 | 7,067 |
| 1974 | 6 | 8,204 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 15 | 5,841 |
| 2012 | 20 | 4,801 |
| 2013 | 18 | 5,089 |
| 2014 | 14 | 6,181 |
| 2015 | 10 | 7,815 |
| 2016 | 14 | 6,211 |
| 2017 | 8 | 9,356 |
| 2018 | 15 | 5,935 |
| 2019 | 10 | 7,968 |
| 2020 | 11 | 7,298 |
| 2021 | 15 | 5,919 |
| 2022 | 14 | 6,347 |
| 2023 | 10 | 8,032 |
| 2024 | 8 | 9,500 |
| 2025 | 7 | 10,262 |

## People named Lafayette

- Lafayette McLaws, Confederate Army general (1821-1897)
- Lafayette Leake, American musician (1919–1990)
- Lafayette S. Foster, American politician (1806-1880)
- Lafayette Young, American politician (1848-1926)
- Lafayette Bunnell, American physician, explorer, and writer (1824-1903)
- Lafayette G. Pool, American tank-crew and tank-platoon commander in World War II
- L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and Scientology founder (1911–1986)
- H. L. Hunt, American businessman (1889–1974)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.