Layman
surname · English · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Layman is a surname, most frequently recorded in the United States. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: From Middle English lay (“non-clergy”) + man.
- USUnited States1 in 31K◐
- CACanada1 in 38K
- AUAustralia1 in 54K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin●
From Middle English lay (“non-clergy”) + man.
Sources 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wiktionary
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
| Country | Share of this name | |
|---|---|---|
| US United States | 85,564 | 81% |
| GB United Kingdom | 2,997 | 3% |
| CA Canada | 1,788 | 2% |
| AU Australia | 1,224 | 1% |
| PH Philippines | 578 | 1% |
≈92,151 recorded bearers across the countries shown (a sample of the full distribution).
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English97K92%
- Spanish2.2K2%
- German4961%
- Arabic4821%
- Hebrew4371%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 97,374 | 92% |
| Spanish | 2,205 | 2% |
| German | 496 | 1% |
| Arabic | 482 | 1% |
| Hebrew | 437 | 1% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Over time●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1915 | 5 |
| 1916 | 12 |
| 1917 | 12 |
| 1918 | 7 |
| 1919 | 9 |
| 1920 | 9 |
| 1921 | 7 |
| 1922 | 5 |
| 1924 | 13 |
| 1927 | 7 |
| 1928 | 5 |
| 1929 | 7 |
| 1931 | 7 |
| 1932 | 7 |
| 1933 | 8 |
| 1935 | 8 |
| 1937 | 10 |
| 1938 | 5 |
| 1939 | 9 |
| 1941 | 8 |
| 1942 | 6 |
| 1944 | 5 |
| 1945 | 9 |
| 1947 | 6 |
| 1948 | 6 |
| 1950 | 6 |
| 1951 | 6 |
| 1952 | 6 |
| 1954 | 6 |
| 1955 | 8 |
| 1956 | 8 |
| 1962 | 5 |
| 1963 | 7 |
US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 33 years between 1915–1963. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- Ronny Laymanb. 1944USAmerican politician
- Sandy Laymanb. 1950USAmerican politician
- John Laymanb. 1969USwriter
- Jason Laymanb. 1973USplayer of American football
- Isaac Laymanb. 1977USAmerican artist
- Jake Laymanb. 1994USAmerican basketball player
- Donald K. LaymanUSresearcher
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence●
Attested in 17 sources across 7 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 10K | #3,556 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 10K | #3,277 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 9.5K | #3,641 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 166 | #42,079 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1924 | 13 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1917 | 12 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1916 | 12 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1937 | 10 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1945 | 9 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1939 | 9 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1920 | 9 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1919 | 9 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-03 data build · 46 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Layman?
- Our records include 92,151 bearers of Layman across 5 countries — a sample of the full distribution.
- In which country does Layman have the most bearers?
- Layman is most frequently recorded in the United States.
- What does the name Layman mean?
- Recorded meaning: From Middle English lay (“non-clergy”) + man.
Query this name via API
curl https://nelma-api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/laymanThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Layman”. Data snapshot 2026-08-31.