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Lafe

#13,111 in 2025Boys' name

Diminutive of Lafayette

Lafe has been given to 696 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #13,111 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1884, with 17 recorded.

Babies named Lafe, 2025

1 in 663,000

Lafe over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Lafe: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Lafayette

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Lafe means

Lafe is a diminutive of Lafayette.

Origin, language, and formation

Lafe is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Lafayette.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 696 boys were recorded with the name Lafe between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 17 in 1884; its best national rank was #459 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #11,405 in 2020 to #13,111 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Lafe?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#13,111
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lafe sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lafe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Lafes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lafe was born before 1948 — so the typical Lafe is around 77 today.

Median birth year
1948
About 77 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
12.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
345
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 12.5% of all recorded uses (87).

Is Lafe rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,706
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
29.4%
Peak was 1884 (17)
Years since peak
141
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#459
1884

Spellings of Lafe

Lafe is not the most common spelling — Luke is, with 15.3% against Lafe's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Lafe is used

Across 1910–2025, Lafe was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 597,456 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lafe has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lafe around the world

Where Lafe ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1964–1964
    #557
    in 1964

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Lafe by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#13,111
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,706
Best rank ever
#459
1884
Peak year
1884
17 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
696
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Lafe

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RafeAsafeLafayetteMustafeLafonLafranceSafeLafonzoLafiammaLafredrickLafeyetteLafrederick

Sibling names for Lafe

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Lafe

Top names of 1884, Lafe's peak yearThe 1880s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with L