Louella
A feminine English given name derived from the French name Loulou or Louloute, meaning "darling".
Name Census estimates that about 4,079 living Americans carry the first name Louella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Louella today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Louella births was 1932 (266 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Louella. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Louella with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 84,029 Americans
Peak year
1932
266 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,489
Tracked since 1880
Census
Louella in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,064 people with the first name Louella, which placed it at #3,876 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,876
National first-name rank
People counted
5.1K
5,064 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Louella
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Louella is White at 61.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Louella described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Louella at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.1% · 3,093
- Black or African American20.3% · 1,026
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 419
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 248
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 145
- Two or more races2.6% · 133
Popularity
Louella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Louella from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 2,457 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Louella 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 Louella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Louellas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Louella, while South Dakota, Idaho, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 202 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Louella
Louella is a feminine given name of English origin. It emerged as a combination of the French names Louise and Ella in the 19th century. The name Louise derives from the Germanic name Hlodwig, which means "famous warrior." Ella is a shortened form of names like Eleanor, which comes from the Greek ainos meaning "praise."
The first recorded use of the name Louella dates back to 1854 in the United States. It gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the earliest notable individuals with this name was Louella Parsons (1881-1972), an American gossip columnist and writer who was a pioneer in the field of celebrity journalism.
Another famous Louella was Louella Duvall Fletcher (1913-2007), an American civil rights activist and author who co-founded the National Alliance of Black Feminists. She was also the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Maritime Service during World War II.
In the literary world, Louella Everett (1878-1972) was an American author and playwright known for her works depicting life in the American South. Her novel, "The Woodsmoke Camp," published in 1900, was one of her most notable works.
Louella Parsons' daughter, Louella Oettinger Parsons (1915-1990), was also a notable figure. She was an American film producer and philanthropist who established the Louella Parsons Foundation to support charitable causes.
In the field of music, Louella Flanders (1892-1972) was an American folk singer and songwriter, known for her work in preserving and promoting traditional folk music from the Appalachian region.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Louella, highlighting its versatility and enduring presence across various fields and cultural contexts.
People
Louella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Louella 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
Louella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Louella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,079 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Louella 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 84,029 US residents.
Is Louella a common name?
We classify Louella as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,809 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Louella most popular?
The single biggest year for Louella was 1932, when 266 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Louella is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Louella in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,064 people with the name Louella, or 1.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,876 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Louella in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Louella?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Louella appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,067 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Louella?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Louella is White at 61.1%. The next largest groups are Black (20.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Louella most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Louella in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.1% (3,093 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Louella in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Louella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Louella 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.
Is Louella still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Louella in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Louella can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people share the name Louella?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.