Luise
A feminine German variant of the French name Louise, meaning "renowned warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 183 living Americans carry the first name Luise. It is a predominantly female name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Luise today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luise births was 1937 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luise. 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 Luise with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
183
~ 1 in 1,872,975 Americans
Peak year
1937
27 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1990 SSA rank
#8,970
Tracked since 1909
Census
Luise in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,218 people with the first name Luise, which placed it at #10,785 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
#10,785
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,218 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luise
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luise is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.4%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Luise 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 Luise at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.7% · 812
- Hispanic or Latino26.4% · 321
- Black or African American4.2% · 51
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 20
- Two or more races1.1% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Luise
Out of the 586 babies given the name Luise since 1880, 99.1% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Luise as a male name
- Ranked #8,970 in 1990
- 5 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1990 (5 births)
Luise as a female name
- Ranked #16,740 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1937 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Luise on both sides of the split. Of the 1,222 people counted with this name, 306 were male (25.0%) and 916 were female (75.0%).
Popularity
Luise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luise from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 129 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Luise 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 Luise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Luises live
Origin
Meaning and history of Luise
The name Luise is a German feminine given name derived from the Old German name Hludwig, which itself originated from the Germanic elements "hlud" meaning "loud" and "wig" meaning "battle" or "warrior." It is the feminine form of the name Ludwig, and over time evolved into various spellings like Louise, Louisa, Luiza, and Luise.
The earliest recorded use of the name Luise dates back to the 11th century in Germany, where it was primarily used among the nobility and royalty. One of the most notable historical figures with this name was Luise of Prussia (1776-1810), the beloved Queen consort of King Frederick William III of Prussia. She played a significant role in rallying support for the Prussian War of Liberation against Napoleon.
Another influential woman with this name was Luise Otto-Peters (1819-1895), a pioneering German feminist, writer, and activist who fought for women's rights and education. She founded the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (General German Women's Association) in 1865, one of the earliest women's rights organizations in Germany.
In the realm of literature, Luise Büchner (1821-1877) was a German author and poet, best known for her novel "Stille Liebe" (Silent Love) and her contributions to the Büchner Prize, established in honor of her brother, the renowned writer Georg Büchner.
Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850-1927) was a German-American opera singer and voice teacher who performed extensively in Europe and the United States. She is credited with training many notable opera singers of her time.
In the field of mathematics, Luise Lührig (1851-1922) was a German mathematician and educator who made significant contributions to the study of algebraic curves and surfaces. She was one of the first women to obtain a doctoral degree in mathematics in Germany.
People
Luise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luise 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
Luise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 183 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luise 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 1,872,975 US residents.
Is Luise a common name?
We classify Luise as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 586 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luise most popular?
The single biggest year for Luise was 1937, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luise is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luise in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,218 people with the name Luise, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,785 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 Luise 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 Luise?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Luise on both sides of the split. Of the 1,222 people counted with this name, 306 were male (25.0%) and 916 were female (75.0%). 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 Luise?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luise is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.4%) and Black (4.2%). 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 Luise most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Luise in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.7% (812 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 Luise in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luise a female name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Luise 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 Luise still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luise 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 Luise 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 Luise?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.