Louis
The story
Louis is the giant of this batch: about 401,000 Americans carry it in our records, more than 68,000 from the 1920s alone. The root is old Germanic, hlod and wig, renowned warrior, polished by eighteen French kings and one incomparable trumpet player from New Orleans. The taper from that 1920s ocean was long, and from the 1940s it ran six straight decades down to about 10,300 in the 2000s, and then the curve did what classics this deep rarely do: it turned, rising to about 11,800 in the 2010s, the decade a small British prince put the name back in headlines, with 8,600 so far this decade. America splits the pronunciation freely, LOO-is on certificates, LOO-ee in kitchens, and the name absorbs both. In our records it goes to boys about 398,200 to 2,800. Lou and Louie do the everyday work. Four centuries of kings; one century of swing; still going.
Louis around the world
One shared root links 9 names across 5 languages.
Shared root: from Frankish Hludwig, hlud "famous" + wig "war", smoothed through Latin Ludovicus and French Louis
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Louis peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,120 people · the #7,656 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 166,667 · median age 23
Among people named Louis living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 184 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Louis
People given the name Louis in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Louis deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Louis truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Louis fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Louis · French baby names · Saint names for babies and confirmation · Names of music legends
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