Lawson
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Meaning
surname, "son of Lawrence"
The story
Lawson means "son of Laurence", through an English surname, but Henry Lawson’s fiction notices that a father has a name of his own. An Old Mate of Your Father’s, the opening piece in While the Billy Boils, recalls visits from a friend of Father’s goldfields days. The children find it strange to hear this visitor call him Tom, when their mother usually calls him Father. He brings fruit or sweets, slips the children coins, and talks with their father about the lives they knew before. After he leaves, Father sits thoughtfully beside the fire. It is a small literary shift in perspective: someone known through his place in the family briefly appears as a younger man with old friendships. The patronymic tells us whose son; Lawson’s story pauses over who the father was.
Lawson across languages
One shared root links 7 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Latin Laurentius "man from Laurentum", a city name Rome linked by tradition to laurus "laurel"
The constellation
More branches
How popular is Lawson around the world?
In the United States, 5,139 babies were named Lawson between 2020 and 2025.
Lawson is on the official records of the United States, South Australia, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, England and Wales and Brazil.
United States
1 in 4,200
In the United States, 5,139 babies were named Lawson between 2020 and 2025.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lawson peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
South Australia
1 in 6,1002017
In South Australia, 3 boys were registered as Lawson in 2017.
The count never rose above 6 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
Scotland
1 in 7,600
In Scotland, 6 boys named Lawson were registered in 2024, the 478th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
Canada
1 in 8,700
In Canada, 42 boys named Lawson were born in 2024, the 655th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
Ireland
1 in 14,000
In Ireland, 4 boys named Lawson were born in 2025, the 676th most common name among boys that year.
The count never rose above 4 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
England and Wales
1 in 20,000
In England and Wales, 29 boys named Lawson were born in 2025, ranked 1,035th among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
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
Brazil
At the 2022 census, 33 people in Brazil were named Lawson, ranked 88,550th, with a median age of 32.
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
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Zealand 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.
When you meet Lawson
Most people given the name Lawson in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
Keep exploring
The Lawson deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lawson 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 Lawson fits with your family’s names and surname.
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