Lafayette

Where Lafayette comes from

French surname from Occitan, "the little beech tree".
— Wiktionary's entry for Lafayette
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1821
    Lafayette McLaws born
    Confederate Army general
  2. 1848
    Lafayette Young born
    American politician
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #363 among boys — 22 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1886
    Peak, #325
    27 babies named Lafayette — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1890
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #566.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, originally in honor of the Marquis.
Namesakes
  • Lafayette McLaws · Confederate Army general, 1821–1897
  • Lafayette Young · American politician, 1848–1926
  • Lafayette Leake · American musician, 1919–1990
  • Lafayette S. Foster · American politician, 1806–1880
  • Lafayette G. Pool · American tank-crew and tank-platoon commander in World War II, 1919–1991

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.