Lukas
A masculine form of the name Luke of Latin origin meaning "luminous" or "light-giving".
Name Census estimates that about 42,343 living Americans carry the first name Lukas. It sits at #268 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lukas today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lukas births was 2019 (1,786 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lukas. 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 Lukas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Lukas is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
42K
~ 1 in 8,095 Americans
Peak year
2019
1,786 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#268
Tracked since 1963
Census
Lukas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 32,662 people with the first name Lukas, which placed it at #1,198 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
#1,198
National first-name rank
People counted
33K
32,662 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lukas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lukas is White at 75.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.8%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Lukas 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 Lukas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.6% · 24,688
- Hispanic or Latino14.8% · 4,840
- Two or more races5.5% · 1,785
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 705
- Black or African American1.4% · 471
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 173
Gender
Gender distribution for Lukas
Out of the 42,897 babies given the name Lukas since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Lukas as a male name
- Ranked #268 in 2024
- 1,287 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (1,786 births)
Lukas as a female name
- Ranked #19,044 in 2009
- 5 female births in 2009
- Peak: 2004 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lukas appears almost entirely male. Of the 32,668 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Lukas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lukas from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 15,952 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lukas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lukas 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 Lukas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lukas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Lukas, while Vermont, Hawaii, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 804 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lukas
The name Lukas is a masculine given name derived from the Latin name Lucas, which itself originated from the Greek name Loukas. The Greek name Loukas is a shortened form of the Latin name Lucanus, which means "from Lucania", an ancient region in southern Italy.
Lukas has its roots in ancient Roman and Greek cultures, and it can be traced back to the 1st century AD. The name gained popularity in the Christian tradition due to its association with the Gospel of Luke, one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament, which is believed to have been written by the Evangelist Luke.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lukas can be found in the Bible, where it refers to the Evangelist Luke, a physician and companion of the Apostle Paul. According to tradition, Luke was born in Antioch, Syria, in the 1st century AD, and he is credited with authoring the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lukas. One of the most famous was Lukas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), a German Renaissance painter and printmaker. Another notable figure was Lukas van Leyden (1494-1533), a Dutch engraver and painter who was renowned for his innovative techniques and attention to detail.
In the realm of literature, Lukas Gotthelft Gernler (1625-1675) was a German poet and translator who made significant contributions to the development of German literature during the Baroque period. In the field of music, Lukas Foss (1922-2009) was an American composer, conductor, and pianist who was known for his innovative and avant-garde works.
Another noteworthy individual was Lukas Moser (1508-1573), a German theologian and reformer who played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation. He was a close associate of Martin Luther and worked alongside him in translating the Bible into German.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lukas
People
Lukas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lukas 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
Lukas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lukas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 42,343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lukas 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 8,095 US residents.
Is Lukas a common name?
We classify Lukas as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42,897 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lukas most popular?
The single biggest year for Lukas was 2019, when 1,786 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lukas is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lukas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 32,662 people with the name Lukas, or 10.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,198 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 Lukas 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 Lukas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lukas appears almost entirely male. Of the 32,668 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 Lukas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lukas is White at 75.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.8%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Lukas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lukas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.6% (24,688 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 Lukas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lukas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lukas 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 Lukas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lukas 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 Lukas 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 named Lukas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.