Luci
Derived from the Latin name Lucia, meaning "light" or "illumination".
Name Census estimates that about 2,602 living Americans carry the first name Luci. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Luci today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luci births was 2010 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luci. 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 Luci with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 131,727 Americans
Peak year
2010
95 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,903
Tracked since 1937
Census
Luci in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,267 people with the first name Luci, which placed it at #5,303 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
#5,303
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,267 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luci
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luci is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Luci 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 Luci at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.3% · 2,132
- Hispanic or Latino22.6% · 738
- Black or African American3.9% · 126
- Two or more races3.9% · 126
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 113
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 32
Popularity
Luci: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luci from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 695 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Luci remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Luci 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 Luci during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lucis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Luci, while Washington, Utah, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Luci
The name Luci is derived from the Latin name Lucia, which means "light" or "bringer of light." It has its roots in the ancient Roman culture and can be traced back to the late Roman Republic era and the early imperial period.
The name Lucia was originally used to refer to a Christian martyr who lived in Syracuse, Sicily, in the 4th century AD. According to legend, Lucia was put to death for her unwavering faith during the Diocletianic Persecution. Her name became associated with light because of the story that her eyes were gouged out, but her faith remained steadfast, and she was granted a luminous glow.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Luci can be found in the writings of the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD. In his work "Fasti," Ovid mentions a festival called "Lucaria" that was celebrated in honor of the Roman goddess Lucina, who was associated with childbirth and the bringing of children into the light.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Luci. One of the most famous was Luci Cornelio Silla (138-78 BC), a Roman statesman and dictator who played a pivotal role in the Roman Republic's transition to the Roman Empire.
Another notable figure was Luci Anneo Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD), a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist who served as a tutor and advisor to the emperor Nero. His writings, such as "Epistulae Morales" and "De Clementia," had a significant impact on Western philosophy and literature.
In the realm of art, Luci della Robbia (1399-1482) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, best known for his terracotta sculptures and glazed earthenware.
During the Renaissance period, Luci Ghiberti (1378-1455) was an Italian sculptor and artist, renowned for his bronze doors at the Baptistery of the Cathedral of Florence, which were dubbed the "Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo.
In more recent times, Luci Baines Johnson (born 1947) is an American businesswoman and the younger daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson.
People
Luci + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luci 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
Luci: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luci?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,602 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luci 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 131,727 US residents.
Is Luci a common name?
We classify Luci as "Rare". It ranks above 94.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,805 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luci most popular?
The single biggest year for Luci was 2010, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luci is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luci in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,267 people with the name Luci, or 1.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,303 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 Luci 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 Luci?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luci leans strongly female. 3,232 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 35 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Luci?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luci is White at 65.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Luci most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Luci in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.3% (2,132 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 Luci in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luci a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Luci 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 Luci still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luci 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 Luci 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 have the name Luci?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Luci, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.