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Lear

UnisexGirls' nameBoys' name

Form of Leir

Lear has been given to 527 babies in the U.S. since 1886. 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 1920, with 23 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 93% girls, 7% boys all-time.

Babies named Lear, 1966

1 in 695,000

Lear over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 — Lear over time

In 2015, Lear went to 0% girls and 100% boys.

18862015

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.

Lear: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Leir

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Lear means

Lear is a form of Leir.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Lear is used in Literature.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈlɪɹ/ and /ˈlɪə/ for Lear.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Leir.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 491 girls were recorded with the name Lear between 1886 and 1966. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1920; its best national rank was #1,042 in 1886.

In the United States, 36 boys were recorded with the name Lear between 1997 and 2015. Its highest annual count was 7 in 2015; its best national rank was #10,176 in 1997.

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.

How common is Lear?

Lear had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1966, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1966
1 in 695,000
5 of 3,475,564 births
Among girls only
1 in 338,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1966
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
481,817 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lear sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1966 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 481,817 children born in 1966 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lear. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Lears were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lear was born before 1921 — so the typical Lear is around 104 today.

Median birth year
1921
About 104 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
27.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
23
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 27.9% of all recorded uses (137).

Is Lear 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 1920 (23)
Years since peak
105
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,042
1886

Spellings of Lear

Lear is not the most common spelling — Jean is, with 31.5% against Lear'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 Lear is used

Across 1910–2025, Lear was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 621,801 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in —
  2. 2Mississippi1 in —
  3. 3North Carolina1 in —
  4. 4Tennessee1 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. Lear has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lear around the world

Where Lear 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
    1968–1983
    #686
    in 1983

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

Lear by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,042
1886
Peak year
1920
23 that year
First recorded
1886
Last recorded
1966
All-time count
491
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#10,176
1997
Peak year
2015
7 that year
First recorded
1997
Last recorded
2015
All-time count
36
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Lear

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

LeahaLealaLeaniLeanLeaneLeannyLeahnaLeasiaLeasaLearaLeannahLeaannLeafyLeanerLeanaLeanorLeashaLeanoraLealerLeanniLeandaVearLeairaLealani

Sibling names for Lear

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 Lear

Top names of 1920, Lear's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1886Girls' names starting with L