Laurel
loc · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Laurel is a name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: French personal name and surname meaning literally 'someone who lives by a laurel tree'.
- USUnited States1 in 8.3K(measured from records)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 8.6K
- CACanada≈1 in 6.4K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 494 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.4K (inferred from the name graph)
≈130,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Canada, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
French personal name and surname meaning literally 'someone who lives by a laurel tree'.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Laurel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 11K | — | Laurel | 14 |
| US United States | 40,185 | 1 in 8.3K | 39K | Laurel | 494 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈6,100 est. | ≈1 in 11K | 3 | Laurel | 156 |
| CA Canada | ≈5,900 est. | ≈1 in 6.4K | 1 | Laurel | 200 |
| AU Australia | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 8.6K | 3 | Laurel | 123 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈680 est. | ≈1 in 7.2K | 13 | — | 47 |
| GY Guyana | 90 | 1 in 8.3K | 90 | — | 3 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Laurel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
19th-century adoption of the vocabulary word for the tree (Middle English Jorel, a dissimilated form of Old French lorer), probably influenced by pLaura. It may have been taken as a pet form of the latter.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In Spanish, topographic name for someone who lived by a laurel tree, Spanish laurel (Latin laurus), or a habitational name from Laurel in the Canary Islands.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, Laurus nobilis, an evergreen shrub having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, du nom du laurier; apparenté à Laura/Laurent. Fête: 10 août, saint Laurent.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
English: 19th-century adoption of the English vocabulary word denoting the tree (Middle English lorel , a dissimilated form of Old French lorer ), probably influenced by LAURA . It may have been taken as a pet form of LAURA . Variant (elaborated form): Laurelle. Pet form: Laurie .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Stan Laurelb. 1890GBEnglish actor (1890–1965)
- José Paciano Laurelb. 1891PHPresident of the Philippines from 1943 to 1945
- Salvador Laurelb. 1928PHVice President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992
- Robert Crippenb. 1937USnot in their usual nameAmerican astronaut
- Laurel Goodwinb. 1942USAmerican actress
- Wendy Freedmanb. 1957CAnot in their usual nameCanadian-American astronomer
- Laurel Clarkb. 1961USNASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy Captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist (1961-2003)
- Laurel Hollomanb. 1971USAmerican painter and actress
- Laurel Hubbardb. 1978NZWeightlifter from New Zealand
- Chelsea Greenb. 1991CAnot in their usual nameCanadian professional wrestler
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 64 sources across 34 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 39K | #1,041 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 714 | #1,041 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 372 | — |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 90 | #504 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 26 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1959 | 13 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2022 | 6 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2018 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2019 | 3 | #765 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1967 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 2017 | 2 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2017 | 2 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Laurel mean, and where does it come from?
- French personal name and surname meaning literally 'someone who lives by a laurel tree'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- In which country does Laurel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 132 thousand people named Laurel in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled laurel.
- How common is the name Laurel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 40,185 people named Laurel in 2020, about 1 in 8.3 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Laurel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/laurelThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Laurel”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.