Lautaro
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Meaning
commonly explained as a hispanicized form of Mapuche Lef-Traru: lef, 'swift', plus traru, a bird of prey glossed 'hawk' or as the traro caracara; borne by the great 16th-century Mapuche toqui
The story
The Chilean National Library’s account places the young Lautaro in Pedro de Valdivia’s stables, a captured Mapuche learning how the Spaniards operated. It also cautions that the surviving view comes chiefly through Spanish chronicles of the sixteenth century. Lautaro is commonly explained as a Hispanicized form of Mapudungun Lef-Traru, joining swift with a hawk or traro; the library gives the broader sense swift bird. After leaving captivity, he reportedly told Mapuche leaders about the weight of Spanish armour, gunpowder’s failure in rain, and the uses of horses and weapons. At Tucapel in 1553, the account describes him leading a Mapuche victory through chosen ground and successive waves of fighters. The knowledge acquired while serving the Spanish commander had become information used against the forces that commander led.
How popular is Lautaro around the world?
In the United States, Lautaro is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025. In Montevideo, 533 boys named Lautaro were born in 2011, spelling variants counted together.
Lautaro is on the official records of the United States, Montevideo, Argentina, Chile, Mexico City, Spain and Brazil.
United States
on record
In the United States, Lautaro is on the Social Security birth record for 2020 to 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lautaro 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
Montevideo City
1 in 46 · 2011
In Montevideo, 533 boys named Lautaro were born in 2011, spelling variants counted together.
share of that year’s births on record
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Argentina
1 in 260
In Argentina, 2,510 newborns were given the name Lautaro in 2024.
share of that year’s name registrations
Given-name components of births in Argentina 2012–2024; national cells are lower bounds and no sex split is published. Source: RENAPER (Argentina), Dirección Nacional de Población, given names 2012-2024
Chile
1 in 810
In Chile, 219 boys were registered as Lautaro in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
share of that year’s name registrations
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Mexico City City
1 in 29,000
In Mexico City, there were 4 registrations of Lautaro in 2022.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Civil-registry acts in Mexico City by registration year. Counts are lower bounds (names under 6 in a month and borough are removed at source) and count name-instances, not people; compound names are split, so “Maria Jose” counts under each part. 2023, a partial extract through 3 Mar with no cell on record for this name, is excluded. Source: Registro Civil of Mexico City, open data portal, registered given names 2000-2023
Spain
1 in 65,000
In Spain, 690 residents are named Lautaro, ranked 1,835th among men, with a mean age of 21 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Brazil
1 in 1M
At the 2022 census, 103 people in Brazil were named Lautaro, ranked 40,437th, with a median age of 14.
Among people named Lautaro living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
South Australia
last on record 2010
Lautaro is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
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
Not on the record in Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Lautaro deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lautaro 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 Lautaro fits with your family’s names and surname.
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