Hundreds of Americans Are Legally Named 'Lol'

Somewhere in America right now, a person named Lol is filling out a form, watching a clerk's eyebrows shoot up, and sighing for the thousandth time. Yes, 'Lol' is a real, legal first name—and several hundred Americans have it.

Before you assume their parents were internet trolls with a cruel sense of humor, here's the twist: most people named Lol didn't get the name as a joke at all.

It's Not What You Think

The name Lol predates the internet by centuries. It's a traditional Welsh name, a diminutive of Laurence, similar to how Bob comes from Robert. In Wales, you might meet a perfectly serious Lol who's never sent a text message in his life.

The name also appears in various African cultures, Indian communities, and as a nickname that stuck. Many Lols in America are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who brought legitimate cultural names that just happen to look hilarious in the age of instant messaging.

Living With the Name

Imagine the daily obstacles:

• Email addresses that look like jokes
• Customer service calls that go sideways
• Online forms that reject your name as invalid
• The constant explanation that yes, it's your real name

Some Lols have reported that their emails get flagged as spam. Others have had their accounts suspended on social media platforms that assumed "Lol Smith" was obviously a fake profile. One Lol reportedly had to bring his birth certificate to the DMV.

The Numbers Game

The U.S. Census Bureau tracks name frequencies, though exact figures for unusual names can be tricky to pin down due to privacy thresholds. Names appearing fewer than 100 times in a given dataset often get suppressed. What we know is that Lol appears consistently across census records, and supplementary data from name databases suggests several hundred Americans carry this name.

The number has likely grown slightly as American naming conventions have become more creative—though it's hard to separate the traditional Lols from parents who genuinely thought naming their kid after an acronym was a good idea.

The Internet Made It Weird

The abbreviation "LOL" (laughing out loud) entered the chat in the 1980s, became ubiquitous in the 1990s and 2000s, and transformed a perfectly respectable name into a walking punchline. People who'd gone decades without incident suddenly found their name had become a meme.

There's something beautifully absurd about it. A name that meant "beloved" in Welsh, that honored family traditions across continents, now makes baristas giggle when they call out your coffee order.

For the Lols of the world, every introduction is an adventure. Every new coworker, every substitute teacher, every first date involves that moment of recognition, the suppressed smile, and the inevitable question: "Wait, really?"

Really.