Lai
UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Lai has been given to 256 babies in the U.S. since 1953. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1984, with 17 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 90% girls, 10% boys all-time.
Babies named Lai, 2015
1 in 617,000
Lai over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Lai over time
In 2015, Lai went to 100% girls and 0% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Lai?
Lai had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2015, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2015
- 1 in 617,000
- 6 of 3,701,574 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 297,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2015
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 427,624 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Lai sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2015 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 427,624 children born in 2015 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lai. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Lais were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Lai was born before 1987 — so the typical Lai is around 38 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1980s
- 40.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 39.0%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 231
- People you could plausibly meet
1980s — 40.7% of all recorded uses (94).
Is Lai 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
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 0%
- Peak was 1984 (17)
- Years since peak
- 41
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 32.2% average annual change
Where Lai is used
Across 1910–2025, Lai was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 380,256 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1California1 in —
- 2New York1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Lai has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Lai around the world
Where Lai 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.
- England & Wales1996–2009#4,564in 2009
- Scotland1976–1986#565in 1986
- South Australia2000–2000#727in 2000
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Lai by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Lai
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Lai
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.