Louise
A French feminine name derived from the Germanic root meaning "renowned warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 66,329 living Americans carry the first name Louise. It is a predominantly female name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Louise today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Louise births was 1920 (9,226 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Louise. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Louise is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,196 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Louise is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Louises were born before 1967.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Louise have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
66K
~ 1 in 5,167 Americans
Peak year
1920
9,226 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
2022 SSA rank
#540
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Louise
Out of the 338,078 babies given the name Louise since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Louise as a male name
- Ranked #9,513 in 2022
- 8 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1929 (59 births)
Louise as a female name
- Ranked #540 in 2024
- 559 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (9,180 births)
Popularity
Louise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Louise 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 83,395 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
Louise 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 Louise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Louises live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia recorded the most babies named Louise, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,589 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Louise
The name Louise is a French feminine form of the Germanic name Louis, derived from the Old Frankish Hludwig, which is composed of the elements hlud meaning "famous" and wig meaning "war" or "battle." It first became popular in France during the Middle Ages and later spread to other European countries.
One of the earliest documented uses of the name Louise dates back to the 9th century, when a Frankish noblewoman named Louise of Saxony lived in the court of Charlemagne. Another notable bearer of the name was Louise of Savoy (1476-1531), the mother of King Francis I of France and a prominent figure during the Renaissance.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, several French princesses and noblewomen bore the name, including Louise de La Vallière (1644-1710), a mistress of King Louis XIV, and Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (1693-1775), the daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.
In the 19th century, the name gained further popularity across Europe and beyond. Notable bearers include Louise Michel (1830-1905), a French anarchist and activist during the Paris Commune, and Louise May Alcott (1832-1888), the American author best known for her novel "Little Women."
Another famous Louise was Louise Otto-Peters (1819-1895), a German writer and activist who campaigned for women's rights and education. In the 20th century, Louise Brooks (1906-1985) was an American actress and dancer known for her iconic bobbed hairstyle and roles in silent films.
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a French-American artist renowned for her large-scale sculptures and installations exploring themes of family, sexuality, and the human psyche. Her works are held in major museums worldwide, and she is considered a pioneering figure in contemporary art.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Louise
People
Louise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Louise 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
Louise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Louise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 66,329 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Louise 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 5,167 US residents.
Is Louise a common name?
We classify Louise as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 338,078 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Louise most popular?
The single biggest year for Louise was 1920, when 9,226 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Louise is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Louise a female name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Louise 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.