Luba
Originally a Slavic diminutive of the name Lyubov, meaning "love".
Name Census estimates that about 274 living Americans carry the first name Luba. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Luba today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luba births was 1952 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luba. 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
274
~ 1 in 1,250,928 Americans
Peak year
1952
23 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,659
Tracked since 1912
Census
Luba in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,881 people with the first name Luba, which placed it at #7,877 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
#7,877
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,881 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luba
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luba is White at 94.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.7%) and Black (1.2%). 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 Luba 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 Luba at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.7% · 1,782
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 50
- Black or African American1.2% · 23
- Two or more races0.7% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Luba: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luba from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 174 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
Luba 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 Luba during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lubas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Luba, while Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Luba
The name Luba has its origins in the Slavic languages, particularly Russian and Ukrainian. It is believed to have derived from the Old Church Slavonic word "lyubov," which means "love." The name was first recorded in medieval times, around the 10th to 12th centuries, when the Slavic cultures were adopting Christianity and using names influenced by the new religion.
One of the earliest known references to the name Luba can be found in the Russian Primary Chronicle, a historical manuscript dating back to the 12th century. In this text, there is a mention of a woman named Luba who was a member of the Kievan Rus' nobility.
Over the centuries, the name Luba has been borne by several notable historical figures. One such figure was Luba Skuratovskaya (1925-2015), a Ukrainian actress and People's Artist of Ukraine, renowned for her performances in numerous films and theater productions.
Another prominent Luba was Luba Kadison (1932-2022), a Russian-American pianist and music educator. She was a celebrated performer and taught at several prestigious music schools, including the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.
In the realm of literature, Luba Gurdjieff (1917-1985) was a influential figure. She was the daughter of the renowned spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff and played a significant role in preserving and disseminating her father's teachings through her writings and lectures.
The name Luba was also carried by Luba Derczanska (1879-1952), a notable Ukrainian writer, poet, and translator. She was a prominent figure in the Ukrainian literary scene and contributed greatly to the preservation and promotion of Ukrainian culture.
Lastly, Luba Kadison (1932-2022), a Russian-American pianist and music educator, was a celebrated performer who taught at prestigious institutions like the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, leaving a lasting impact on the world of classical music.
People
Luba + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luba 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
Luba: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luba?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 274 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luba 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 1,250,928 US residents.
Is Luba a common name?
We classify Luba as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 578 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luba most popular?
The single biggest year for Luba was 1952, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luba is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luba in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,881 people with the name Luba, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,877 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 Luba 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 Luba?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luba appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,880 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Luba?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luba is White at 94.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.7%) and Black (1.2%). 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 Luba most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Luba in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.7% (1,782 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 Luba in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luba a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Luba 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 Luba still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luba 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 Luba 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 are named Luba?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.