Luke
A masculine given name of Greek origin meaning "bright or from Lucania".
Roughly 304,463 people in the United States go by the first name Luke, which ranks #34 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Luke today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luke births was 2014 (10,534 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Erin (304,342).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luke. 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 Luke with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Luke is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 556 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
304K
~ 1 in 1,126 Americans
Peak year
2014
10,534 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#34
Tracked since 1880
Census
Luke in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 267,177 people with the first name Luke, which placed it at #202 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
#202
National first-name rank
People counted
267K
267,177 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
88.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luke
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luke is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.8%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Luke 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 Luke at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.9% · 221,466
- Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 20,885
- Two or more races4.5% · 11,897
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 6,993
- Black or African American1.7% · 4,540
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1,396
Gender
Gender distribution for Luke
Out of the 316,587 babies given the name Luke 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.
Luke as a male name
- Ranked #34 in 2024
- 7,039 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (10,521 births)
Luke as a female name
- Ranked #12,883 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luke appears almost entirely male. Of the 267,180 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Luke: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luke 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 93,347 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Luke remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Luke 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 Luke during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lukes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Luke, while Vermont, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,110 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Luke
The name Luke has its origins in the Latin name Lucas, which itself is derived from the Greek name Loukas. The Greek name Loukas is thought to have emerged from the Latin word "lux" meaning "light." The name Luke became popular in Christian cultures due to its association with the apostle Luke, one of the four evangelists who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.
The name Luke has a long history, with references dating back to ancient times. One of the earliest known mentions of the name is in the Gospel of Luke, written in the first century AD, where the author identifies himself as "Luke the beloved physician." Another early reference is in the Acts of the Apostles, which also mentions Luke as a companion of the apostle Paul.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Luke. One of the most famous is the Italian painter Fra Angelico, born Guido di Pietro in 1395, who was also known as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole or Blessed Fra Angelico. His works, including the renowned frescoes in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, are widely admired for their artistic and spiritual beauty.
Another prominent figure named Luke was the English playwright and poet Luke Milbourne, who lived from 1649 to 1720. He is best known for his critical works on poetry and drama, as well as his translations of classical literature.
In the world of science, Luke Howard (1772-1864) was an English meteorologist and chemist who introduced the nomenclature system for classifying clouds, which is still used today. His work played a crucial role in the development of modern meteorology.
Luke Wadding (1588-1657) was an Irish Franciscan friar, historian, and theologian who made significant contributions to the study of Irish history and the preservation of Irish manuscripts. He is considered one of the most influential Irish scholars of the 17th century.
Another notable figure with the name Luke is Luke Pryor (1735-1785), an American planter and politician who served as the 15th Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781 during the American Revolutionary War.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Luke
People
Luke + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luke 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
Luke: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luke?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 304,463 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luke 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 1,126 US residents.
Is Luke a common name?
We classify Luke 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, 316,587 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luke most popular?
The single biggest year for Luke was 2014, when 10,534 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luke is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luke in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 267,177 people with the name Luke, or 88.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #202 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 Luke 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 Luke?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luke appears almost entirely male. Of the 267,180 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Luke?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luke is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.8%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). 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 Luke most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Luke in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.9% (221,466 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 Luke in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luke a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Luke 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 Luke still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luke 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 Luke 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 Luke?
Find out how many people have the name Luke on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.