Luis
A masculine Spanish name derived from the Germanic name Chlodovech meaning "famous warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 272,444 living Americans carry the first name Luis. It sits at #130 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Luis today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luis births was 2007 (8,066 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luis. 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 Luis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Luis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,534 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
272K
~ 1 in 1,258 Americans
Peak year
2007
8,066 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#130
Tracked since 1880
Census
Luis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 489,967 people with the first name Luis, which placed it at #91 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
#91
National first-name rank
People counted
490K
489,967 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
162.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luis is Hispanic at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.6%). 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 Luis 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 Luis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.2% · 471,467
- White2.6% · 12,541
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 2,730
- Black or African American0.5% · 2,220
- Two or more races0.1% · 529
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 480
Gender
Gender distribution for Luis
Out of the 291,974 babies given the name Luis since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Luis as a male name
- Ranked #130 in 2024
- 2,778 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (8,054 births)
Luis as a female name
- Ranked #12,914 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1991 (53 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luis appears almost entirely male. Of the 489,968 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Luis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 74,524 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Luis 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 Luis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Luis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Luis, while Maine, West Virginia, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,875 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Luis
The name Luis has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old German name Chlodovechus, which was later latinized to Ludovicus. Ludovicus was a compound name, formed by the words "hlud" meaning "famous" and "wig" meaning "warrior" or "fighter". Over time, the name evolved through various forms like Lodewijc, Loduwijk, and eventually became Luis in the Spanish and Portuguese languages.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Luis can be traced back to the 8th century, when it was borne by the Frankish king Clovis I, also known as Louis the Pious or Louis the Fair. He was the founder of the Carolingian dynasty and played a significant role in the spread of Christianity in Western Europe.
The name Luis gained popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in regions influenced by the Franks and the Catholic Church. Several notable historical figures bore this name, including Louis IX of France, also known as Saint Louis, who ruled from 1226 to 1270 and led two crusades to the Holy Land.
Another famous Luis was Luis de Camões, the renowned Portuguese poet who lived from 1524 to 1580 and is considered one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language. His epic poem "Os Lusíadas" is a masterpiece that celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery.
In Spain, Luis de León, a 16th-century poet, scholar, and theologian, was a prominent figure of the Spanish Renaissance. He was born in 1527 and is remembered for his contributions to Spanish literature and his defense of religious freedom.
Across the Atlantic, Luis de Velasco was a Spanish conquistador and the second viceroy of New Spain (now Mexico) from 1550 to 1564. He played a crucial role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the establishment of colonial rule in Mexico.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Luis, a name with a rich heritage and fascinating linguistic journey from its Germanic roots to its modern usage in various Romance languages.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Luis
People
Luis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luis 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
Luis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 272,444 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luis 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 1,258 US residents.
Is Luis a common name?
We classify Luis as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 291,974 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luis most popular?
The single biggest year for Luis was 2007, when 8,066 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luis is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 489,967 people with the name Luis, or 162.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #91 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 Luis 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 Luis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luis appears almost entirely male. Of the 489,968 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Luis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luis is Hispanic at 96.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.6%). 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 Luis most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Luis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.2% (471,467 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 Luis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luis a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Luis 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 Luis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luis 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 Luis 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 Luis as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Luis on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.