Laird
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Meaning
lord of the land, landowner (Scottish); famously borne by big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton
The story
Laird is the Scots word for a landowner, the lord of an estate, a title still in living use in Scotland, so as a first name it hands a child a small dominion of his own. It has never been common in America, sitting essentially unrecorded until a first flicker in the 2020s, which makes it that rare thing, a genuinely rare name that is neither invented nor hard to say. Its most famous bearer earned a different kind of domain. Laird Hamilton, the big-wave surfer, helped invent tow-in surfing, using jet skis to reach waves too fast and too huge to paddle into, and his ride at Teahupoo in 2000 is still spoken of as one of the heaviest waves ever surfed. A lord of the land who mastered the sea. For parents after a strong, uncommon single syllable, Laird sits quietly waiting to be found.
How popular is Laird around the world?
In the United States, 21 babies were named Laird between 2020 and 2025. In South Australia, 1 boy was registered as Laird in 2017.
Laird is on the official records of the United States and South Australia.
United States
1 in 1M
In the United States, 21 babies were named Laird between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Laird has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
South Australia
1 in 18,0002017
In South Australia, 1 boy was registered as Laird in 2017.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
England and Wales
last on record 2013
Laird is not on the 2025 record for England and Wales, where spellings under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Laird deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Laird truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Laird fits with your family’s names and surname.
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