Lucan
A masculine name of Latin origin possibly meaning "from Lucania" or "bright one".
Name Census estimates that about 459 living Americans carry the first name Lucan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lucan today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lucan births was 1978 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lucan. 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 Lucan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
459
~ 1 in 746,741 Americans
Peak year
1978
41 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,066
Tracked since 1977
Census
Lucan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 429 people with the first name Lucan, which placed it at #22,989 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
#22,989
National first-name rank
People counted
429
429 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lucan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucan is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Lucan 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 Lucan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.3% · 280
- Black or African American12.4% · 53
- Hispanic or Latino11.7% · 50
- Two or more races6.1% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 5
Popularity
Lucan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lucan from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 180 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lucan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lucan 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 Lucan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lucans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lucan
The name Lucan originated in ancient Rome, derived from the Latin word "lucus," meaning a sacred grove or woodland. The earliest known references to the name date back to the 1st century AD, when it was used as a Roman cognomen or family name.
One of the most famous historical figures bearing the name Lucan was Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, a Roman poet born in 39 AD in Corduba, Spain. He is best known for his epic poem "Pharsalia," which chronicles the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. Lucan was a nephew of the philosopher Seneca and was involved in a conspiracy against the emperor Nero, leading to his execution in 65 AD.
Another notable figure named Lucan was Saint Lucan, a Christian martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD in modern-day Turkey. He was a disciple of Saint Polycarp and is believed to have been martyred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Decius in 250 AD.
In the Middle Ages, the name Lucan appeared in various forms across Europe, including Lucan, Lucano, and Lucanus. One notable bearer of the name was Lucan of Antioch, a 5th-century Christian scholar and bishop who wrote commentaries on the Bible and other theological works.
During the Renaissance, the name Lucan gained popularity among humanist scholars and writers who admired the works of the Roman poet Lucan. One such individual was the Italian humanist and poet Giovanni Pontano, also known as Gioviano Pontano (1429-1503), who played a significant role in the revival of classical literature and culture in Naples.
Over the centuries, the name Lucan has been borne by several other historical figures, including Lucan of Jerusalem (6th century), a Christian monk and scholar; Lucan of Beauvais (12th century), a French chronicler and historian; and Lucan Duvivier (1888-1972), a French actor and film director known for his work in the early 20th century.
People
Lucan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lucan 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
Lucan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lucan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 459 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lucan 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 746,741 US residents.
Is Lucan a common name?
We classify Lucan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 469 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lucan most popular?
The single biggest year for Lucan was 1978, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lucan is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lucan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 429 people with the name Lucan, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,989 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 Lucan 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 Lucan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lucan leans strongly male. 420 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 9 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Lucan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucan is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Black (12.4%) and Hispanic (11.7%). 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 Lucan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lucan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.3% (280 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 Lucan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lucan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lucan in the SSA data are male. 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 Lucan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lucan 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 Lucan 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 called Lucan?
You can see how many people share the name Lucan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.