Lou
A diminutive of the French name Louis, of Old Frankish origin meaning "famous warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 15,873 living Americans carry the first name Lou. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Lou today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lou births was 1954 (1,547 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lou. 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
16K
~ 1 in 21,594 Americans
Peak year
1954
1,547 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,118
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Lou
Lou leans heavily female at 89.5% of total registrations, but 4,006 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Lou as a male name
- Ranked #2,118 in 2024
- 70 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (74 births)
Lou as a female name
- Ranked #2,541 in 2024
- 70 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1954 (1,495 births)
Popularity
Lou: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lou from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 9,597 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lou 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 Lou during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lous live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Lou, while Hawaii, Alaska, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 586 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lou
The name Lou is a diminutive form of the masculine given name Louis, which originated from the Old Frankish Chlodovech. This name was composed of the Germanic elements hlod, meaning "famous," and wig, meaning "combat" or "battle." The name Louis first appeared in the 7th century AD and was borne by several Frankish kings, including Louis I, also known as Louis the Pious, who reigned from 814 to 840 AD.
Lou gained popularity as a shortened form of Louis during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lou is found in the 13th-century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," where it is used as a nickname for the character Lohier. In the 14th century, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri mentioned the name Lou in his famous work "The Divine Comedy."
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Lou. One of the most famous is Lou Gehrig, an American baseball player who played for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. He was nicknamed "The Iron Horse" and is remembered for his incredible streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. Lou Gehrig was born in 1903 and passed away in 1941.
Another prominent Lou is Lou Reed, an American singer-songwriter, and musician who was a founding member of the influential rock band The Velvet Underground. He was born in 1942 and his solo career spanned several decades until his death in 2013. Lou Reed's music had a significant impact on the development of alternative and indie rock genres.
In the world of literature, Lou Andreas-Salomé was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and writer who was closely associated with the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. She was born in 1861 and lived until 1937, leaving a lasting mark on the fields of philosophy and psychoanalysis.
Lou Costello, born in 1906 and died in 1959, was an American comedian and actor who formed the famous comedic duo Abbott and Costello with Bud Abbott. Their comedy routines, such as "Who's on First?," became iconic and influential in the world of comedy.
Another notable Lou is Lou Brock, an American professional baseball player who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and is considered one of the greatest base stealers in Major League Baseball history. He was born in 1939 and played until 1979, earning induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lou
People
Lou + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lou 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
Lou: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lou?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,873 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lou 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 21,594 US residents.
Is Lou a common name?
We classify Lou as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38,049 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lou most popular?
The single biggest year for Lou was 1954, when 1,547 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lou is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lou a female name?
Yes, 89.5% of people registered as Lou in the SSA data are female. 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.