Louisa
A feminine given name of French and German origin meaning "renowned warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 11,875 living Americans carry the first name Louisa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Louisa today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Louisa births was 2021 (424 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Louisa. 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 Louisa with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 28,864 Americans
Peak year
2021
424 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
1922 SSA rank
#733
Tracked since 1880
Census
Louisa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,126 people with the first name Louisa, which placed it at #2,071 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
#2,071
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,126 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Louisa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Louisa is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.7%) and Black (7.8%). 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 Louisa 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 Louisa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.2% · 8,167
- Hispanic or Latino18.7% · 2,461
- Black or African American7.8% · 1,024
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.7% · 884
- Two or more races3.6% · 479
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 111
Gender
Gender distribution for Louisa
Out of the 21,528 babies given the name Louisa since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Louisa as a male name
- Ranked #4,697 in 1922
- 5 male births in 1922
- Peak: 1922 (5 births)
Louisa as a female name
- Ranked #733 in 2024
- 383 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (424 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Louisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,130 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Louisa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Louisa from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,939 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Louisa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Louisa 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 Louisa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Louisas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Louisa, while Nevada, New Hampshire, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 254 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Louisa
The name Louisa is derived from the Old German name Luitgarde, which is a combination of two Germanic elements: "liut" meaning "people" and "gard" meaning "compound" or "enclosure". It essentially translates to "famous guardian".
The name gained popularity in medieval France as Louise, before evolving into the English variant Louisa during the 17th century. It was particularly embraced by nobility and royalty, including Queen Louisa of Prussia (1776-1810), who was renowned for her patriotism and courage during the Napoleonic Wars.
Louisa was also a popular name in England, with notable figures such as Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the American novelist best known for her classic work "Little Women". Another famous bearer of the name was Louisa Adams (1775-1852), the First Lady of the United States and wife of President John Quincy Adams.
In the realm of literature, the name Louisa appears in several notable works, including Jane Austen's "Persuasion", where Louisa Musgrove is a central character. Additionally, Louisa May Alcott's protagonist in "Little Women" is named Louisa "Lou" Meg March.
Other notable historical figures with the name Louisa include Louisa Morgan Sill (1850-1936), an American educator and suffragist, and Louisa Gross Horwitz (1877-1925), a pioneering American botanist and researcher in plant pathology.
The name Louisa has a rich history, spanning across different cultures and eras, carried by influential women from various walks of life. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its melodic sound and its connection to nobility and literary works.
People
Louisa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Louisa 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
Louisa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Louisa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,875 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Louisa 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 28,864 US residents.
Is Louisa a common name?
We classify Louisa as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,528 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Louisa most popular?
The single biggest year for Louisa was 2021, when 424 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Louisa is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Louisa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,126 people with the name Louisa, or 4.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,071 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 Louisa 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 Louisa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Louisa appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,130 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Louisa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Louisa is White at 62.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.7%) and Black (7.8%). 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 Louisa most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Louisa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.2% (8,167 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 Louisa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Louisa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Louisa 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 Louisa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Louisa 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 Louisa 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 Louisa?
Find out how many people share the name Louisa on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.