Lapeer ( lə-PEER) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county chair of Lapeer County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,841. Most of the city was incorporated from estate that was formerly in Lapeer Township, though portions were next annexed from Mayfield Township and Elba Township. Lapeer is in southern Michigan, east of Flint, on the Flint River.

By an ordinance of the Congress of the United States passed upon July 13, 1787, the area lying northwest of the Ohio River, though nevertheless occupied by the British, was organized as the Northwest Territory. Lapeer County was like part of the Northwest Territory. In January 1820, the county of Oakland was formed, which served the area now known as Lapeer, until the County of Lapeer was formed in 1837, when Michigan became a state. The first elections were for county officers, with 520 persons voting in 1837.

Folklore claims Lapeer was derived from the naming of the south branch of the Flint River, which flows northwestward in Lapeer County. French and Indian traders frequently passed over this section of the county and through the river, ultimately naming the city for the stone that lay at the river bottom. In French, stone is called “la pierre”; the English pronunciation of these words gives Lapeer. The river was named Flint, synonymous taking into account stone. (See List of Michigan county name etymologies.)

It is next believed that the first settlers who came from New York State may have brought the say Lapeer from a similarly named city in their house state. A third supposition is that French missionaries named the city Le Pere, meaning The Father.