Lourdes
A feminine name of French origin referring to a Christian Catholic site of pilgrimage.
Name Census estimates that about 12,953 living Americans carry the first name Lourdes. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Lourdes today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lourdes births was 1963 (333 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lourdes. 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 Lourdes is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 69 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,461 Americans
Peak year
1963
333 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1990 SSA rank
#2,754
Tracked since 1916
Gender
Gender distribution for Lourdes
Out of the 14,813 babies given the name Lourdes since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Lourdes as a male name
- Ranked #7,727 in 1990
- 6 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1986 (8 births)
Lourdes as a female name
- Ranked #2,754 in 2024
- 62 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1963 (333 births)
Popularity
Lourdes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lourdes from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 3,077 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lourdes 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 Lourdes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lourdes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Lourdes, while Iowa, Maryland, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 531 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lourdes
The name Lourdes finds its origins in the Pyrenees region of southwestern France. It is derived from the Occitan words "lor" meaning "this" and "de" meaning "the," referring to the grotto at the town of Lourdes where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
The Marian apparitions at Lourdes have made the town a significant place of pilgrimage for Catholics worldwide. The name Lourdes became popular after these events, as a way to honor the Virgin Mary and the miracles attributed to the location.
While the name Lourdes does not appear in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been closely associated with the Catholic faith and the veneration of the Virgin Mary since the 19th century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lourdes is Saint Bernadette Soubirous herself (1844-1879), the young French girl who witnessed the Marian apparitions at the grotto in Lourdes.
Another notable figure with the name Lourdes is Lourdes Torres (1920-2008), a Cuban-American actress and dancer who appeared in several Hollywood films and television shows throughout her career.
Lourdes Diaz (1958-1992) was a Cuban-American serial killer who was convicted of murdering several elderly women in Miami, Florida, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Lourdes Montes (born 1970) is a Mexican-American entrepreneur and the founder of the successful tequila brand, Casa Dragones.
Lourdes Portillo (born 1944) is a Mexican-American filmmaker and academic, known for her pioneering work in Chicana/o and Latino/a cinema, including the documentary films "Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo" and "Señorita Extraviada."
People
Lourdes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lourdes 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
Lourdes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lourdes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,953 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lourdes 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 26,461 US residents.
Is Lourdes a common name?
We classify Lourdes as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,813 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lourdes most popular?
The single biggest year for Lourdes was 1963, when 333 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lourdes is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lourdes a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Lourdes 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.