Lane is an English surname that was given to someone who lived by a narrow road, from the Old English lanu, and so means "narrow road" or "path". One syllable, plain and outdoorsy, it sits well beside Cole, Nash and Wade in the current taste for short cowboy-style names. Lane has been in the US top 1000 all century, moving from number 296 in 2000 to number 250 among boys' names in 2025, its highest rank in this period.