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The first name 
Laura

Laura is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.

Laura – popular and common in the US

The name Laura isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Laura ranks 312. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 6 were named Laura. In total, there are currently 750,268 people – children, adults and seniors – named Laura living in the United States, which is approximately 0.22 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Laura

What does the name 
Laura mean?

The name Laura originated from the word ‘laurus’, Latin for ‘bay laurel plant’. This meaning was favourable, since in ancient Rome the leaves of laurel trees were used to create victors’ garlands.

As an English name, ... Laura has been used since the 13th century.

Laura has many famous namesakes

A designer

Laura Biagiotti (1943 - 2017)
The Italian designer achieved worldwide fame with her Kashmir collection from the 1970s. In addition to fashion, she is also a fragrance designer and is known to many for her perfumes.

An actress

Laura Linney (*1964)
The US-American is known to most as Sarah from the movie »Love Actually...«, but she received a Primetime Emmy Award for her guest role in the series »Frasier«.

Another actress

Laura Dern (*1967)
We loved Laura Dern as Dr Ellie Sattler in the movie »Jurassic Park«. In 2017 she received a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Renata Klein in the TV series »Big Little Lies«.

A suffragist

Laura Clay (1849–1941)
The leader of the US-American women's suffrage movement was co-founder of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). She and Cora Wilson Stewart were the first women who had their names placed into nomination for the US presidency.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Laura, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Laura? Are you also called Laura? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

A bay in Australia

In the Australian state of South Australia, Laura Bay is located on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula.

A town

Also in the Australian state of South Australia is a small town called Laura.

A village

Laura is a village in the USA, more precisely in Miami County in Ohio.

Another village

There is a village called Laura in Tuscany in central Italy as well. It lies on the slopes of the hill of Lorenzana, about 24 kilometres from Pisa.

A river...

with the name Laura flows in the Cape York Peninsula region in the state of Queensland in Australia.

Laura -
very popular in the 20th century

Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Laura is a staple in the country: Girls have been given the name Laura for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Laura is therefore one of only 432 girls’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Laura is a very special name that peaked in popularity some time ago in the 20th century. Placed 11 Laura easily made it into the Top 100 of our SmartGenius stats for female first names and has never been more popular than back in 1969.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Laura was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

869 newborn babies with the name Laura in 2022

As many as 869 babies were named Laura in the USA in 2022, ranking it #331 on the list of the most popular girls' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 2021, when it was only ranked at #361 of all female names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 797 girls were named Laura.

Laura -
at home all over the USA, especially popular in Alaska

Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Laura. Because: There are women and girls named Laura in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Laura is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular female first names, for example in Texas, where Laura ranks on place 18. The greatest chance of meeting Laura, however, is in Alaska, where one in 137 girls and women bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 206 women and girls and in Nevada, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 261 women and girls for their name before you once get Laura as an answer.

Laura has 5 letters 
and begins with an L

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter L is a particularly popular initial letter for girls' names – 6.8% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for girls’ names are A and S.

With five letters, the name Laura is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that with 6.8% of all girls' names that begin with an L, this first letter is much more common than the other letters on average. If you are now wondering which girls' name with L is the most common... the answer is Linda.

Other names with 
L, a, u, r and a

If you take all the letters in the name Laura – L, a, u, r and a – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Lauar or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Laura

If your name is Laura and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Laura

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Laura, you can simply say:

Lion

Apple

Unicorn

Rocket

Apple

This is how the name Laura is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Laura in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Laura

Laura

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Laura

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Laura is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

L
A
U
R
A

Have you ever waved the name Laura

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

L
A
U
R
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Laura sounds like this: