Lucas
A masculine name derived from the Latin name Lucius, meaning "light" or "bright".
Our analysis of Social Security Administration records puts the number of living Americans named Lucas at approximately 315,141. That places it at #9 in the national ranking of first names. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lucas today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lucas births was 2017 (13,041 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Shawn (313,831).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lucas. 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 Lucas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lucas is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 526 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
315K
~ 1 in 1,088 Americans
Peak year
2017
13,041 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9
Tracked since 1881
Census
Lucas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 249,248 people with the first name Lucas, which placed it at #220 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
#220
National first-name rank
People counted
249K
249,248 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
82.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lucas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucas is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Lucas 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 Lucas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.8% · 173,864
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 48,278
- Two or more races4.8% · 11,844
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 9,928
- Black or African American1.6% · 4,034
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1,300
Gender
Gender distribution for Lucas
Out of the 321,316 babies given the name Lucas since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Lucas as a male name
- Ranked #9 in 2024
- 10,703 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (13,029 births)
Lucas as a female name
- Ranked #11,689 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (39 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lucas appears almost entirely male. Of the 249,246 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Lucas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lucas 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 118,768 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lucas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lucas 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 Lucas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lucas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Lucas, while Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,247 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lucas
The name Lucas is derived from the Latin name Lucanus, which itself originated from the word "lux" meaning "light". This name has its roots in ancient Roman culture and was particularly prevalent during the Roman Empire era.
The earliest recorded use of the name Lucas can be traced back to the New Testament of the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of one of the four Evangelists who wrote the Gospel of Luke. This biblical figure, known as Saint Luke the Evangelist, is believed to have lived in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, the name Lucas has been borne by various notable individuals, including Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), a German Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his portraits of Martin Luther and other Reformation leaders. Another prominent figure was Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (c. 1480-1526), a Spanish explorer credited with leading the first European expedition to present-day South Carolina in 1526.
In the realm of literature, Lucas is the name of a character in William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", which was written in the early 17th century. The name also appears in the works of other famous authors, such as the Dutch writer Lucas Gisbert Prins (1915-1987), known for his novels and short stories.
During the Renaissance period, Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586), the son of the aforementioned painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, also gained recognition as a German Renaissance artist and painter. His works, along with those of his father, are celebrated for their contributions to the artistic legacy of the era.
Another notable figure bearing the name Lucas was Lucas Valerio Votura (1590-1667), an Italian engraver and printmaker who was particularly renowned for his religious and mythological engravings. His intricate and detailed works were highly sought after during his lifetime and continue to be admired by art historians today.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have carried the name Lucas, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human culture and achievement.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lucas
People
Lucas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lucas 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
Lucas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lucas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 315,141 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lucas 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 1,088 US residents.
Is Lucas a common name?
We classify Lucas as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 321,316 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lucas most popular?
The single biggest year for Lucas was 2017, when 13,041 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lucas is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lucas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 249,248 people with the name Lucas, or 82.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #220 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 Lucas 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 Lucas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lucas appears almost entirely male. Of the 249,246 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Lucas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucas is White at 69.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.4%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Lucas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lucas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.8% (173,864 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 Lucas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lucas a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Lucas 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 Lucas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lucas 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 Lucas 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 Lucas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.