Lanford
Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Lanford has been given to 16 babies in the U.S. since 1951. 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 1952, with 6 recorded.
Babies named Lanford, 1957
1 in 840,000
Lanford 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Lanford?
Lanford had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1957, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1957
- 1 in 840,000
- 5 of 4,201,368 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 431,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 1957
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 582,434 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Lanford sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1957 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 582,434 children born in 1957 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lanford. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Lanfords were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Lanford was born before 1952 — so the typical Lanford is around 73 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1950s
- 100.0% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 16
- People you could plausibly meet
1950s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (16).
Is Lanford 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 1952 (6)
- Years since peak
- 73
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 20.0% average annual change
Spellings of Lanford
Lanford is not the most common spelling — Sanford is, with 33.3% against Lanford's 0.04%.
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.
Lanford by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Lanford
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Lanford
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.