Lj
A feminine Scandinavian name derived from Ljótr, meaning "bright" or "shining".
Name Census estimates that about 221 living Americans carry the first name Lj. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lj today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lj births was 2007 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lj. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
221
~ 1 in 1,550,925 Americans
Peak year
2007
13 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,756
Tracked since 1921
Popularity
Lj: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lj from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 78 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lj remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lj by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Lj during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lj
The name Lj is derived from the Old Norse word "ljóss", which means "light" or "bright". This name has its origins in Scandinavia and was commonly used among the Vikings during the 8th to 11th centuries.
In ancient Norse mythology, Ljóss was one of the many names given to the god Baldr, who was considered the most beautiful and radiant of all the gods. He was associated with light, purity, and innocence, and his death was considered a great tragedy in Norse mythology.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lj can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which are a collection of stories and historical accounts from the medieval period. One notable figure from this time was Lj Eiríksson, a Viking explorer who is believed to have been the first European to set foot in North America around the year 1000 AD.
In later centuries, the name Lj became less common, but it was still used in various parts of Europe. One notable bearer of this name was Lj Tolstoy (1828-1910), the famous Russian novelist and philosopher who wrote such works as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina".
Another important figure was Lj Zamenhof (1859-1917), the Polish linguist and creator of the constructed language Esperanto, which was intended to be an easy-to-learn international auxiliary language.
In the field of science, Lj Curie (1867-1934) was a pioneering physicist and chemist who conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity and won the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the award twice.
Lastly, Lj Trotsky (1879-1940) was a prominent Russian revolutionary and Marxist theorist who played a crucial role in the Bolshevik Revolution and served as the first leader of the Red Army. He was later assassinated in Mexico by a Soviet agent.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who bore the name Lj, a name with deep roots in Scandinavian culture and mythology, and a name that has been carried by influential individuals across various fields and regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lj
People
Lj + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lj as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lj: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lj?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 221 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lj going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,550,925 US residents.
Is Lj a common name?
We classify Lj as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 230 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lj most popular?
The single biggest year for Lj was 2007, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lj is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lj a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lj in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.