boy's name
Lachlan
LAKH-lan
- Origin Scottish
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 2
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 13,149
the United States
#606
2025 births
Lachlan is a boy's name of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning "land of the lochs," which was the Gaelic term for Scandinavia — so in practice it meant Norseman. It ranks 89th in Scotland and 606th in the United States.
- Lachlan is a name of Scottish origin.
- Peaked in 2025, when 477 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 6,950 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1952.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Lachlan over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1950s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 16 |
| 1960s | 5 |
| 1970s | 5 |
| 1980s | 31 |
| 1990s | 190 |
| 2000s | 966 |
| 2010s | 2,840 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,345 |
What Lachlan means
Lachlan means land of lakes or fjords. Gaelic speakers used Lochlann for Norway and Scandinavia generally, so a man called Lachlann was a man from there, and Norseman is the sense the name actually carried.
Where Lachlan comes from
Lachlan is the Scottish form of the Gaelic Lochlann, from loch, a lake or sea inlet, used from the Viking age as the name for Scandinavia — a country understood from the west as a place of fjords. The name entered Gaelic use during the centuries of Norse settlement in the Hebrides and the west of Scotland, when Gaelic and Scandinavian families intermarried routinely, and it became hereditary in the Maclachlan clan. Its modern strength owes a great deal to Australia: Lachlan Macquarie, governor of New South Wales from 1810 and the man who turned a penal settlement into a colony, has a river, a valley and a great many streets named for him, and Lachlan has been a top-twenty Australian name for decades as a result. The Irish equivalent is Lochlainn, which gives Loughlin.
Lachlan in use
Lachlan ranks 89th in Scotland with 58 births in 2024, 283rd in England and Wales and 606th in the United States with 477 births, so it has traveled a good deal further than most Scottish names of its type. It is rising in our data with a peak in 2025. Our records carry it from 1952.
How popular is Lachlan?
In 2025, Lachlan was given to 477 babies in the United States, ranking #606 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Lachlan is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Lachlan
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Lachlan also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Lachlan over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Lachlan in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Lachlan
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Lachlan — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Lachlan
What does the name Lachlan mean?
Lachlan means "land of the lochs," the Gaelic name for Scandinavia — so in use it meant Norseman.
Is Lachlan an Australian name?
It is Scottish, but Lachlan Macquarie, an early governor of New South Wales, made it a long-running Australian favorite.
Is Lachlan a Viking name?
Not Norse itself. It is the Gaelic word for a Norseman, coined by the people the Vikings settled among.
How popular is Lachlan?
Eighty-ninth in Scotland and 606th in the United States.
Is Lachlan a girl's or a boy's name?
Lachlan is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Lachlan?
Lachlan has 2 syllables.
Is Lachlan a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Lachlan currently ranks #89 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.