Lupe
Of Spanish origin meaning "wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 10,396 living Americans carry the first name Lupe. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Lupe today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lupe births was 1944 (572 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lupe. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Lupe is about 65 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lupes were born before 1971.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 32,970 Americans
Peak year
1944
572 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,479
Tracked since 1885
Gender
Gender distribution for Lupe
Lupe is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 24,633 total registrations, 6,018 (24.4%) were male and 18,615 (75.6%) were female.
Lupe as a male name
- Ranked #10,479 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1946 (153 births)
Lupe as a female name
- Ranked #10,719 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1927 (443 births)
Popularity
Lupe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lupe from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 4,864 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lupe 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 Lupe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lupes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, California, Arizona recorded the most babies named Lupe, while Wyoming, Oklahoma, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,436 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lupe
The name Lupe is a Spanish diminutive form of the name Guadalupe, which is derived from the Spanish translation of the Arabic name Wadi al-lubah, meaning "valley of the wolves." The name Guadalupe is associated with the Virgin Mary, who is revered as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
The origin of the name can be traced back to the 16th century when, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous Mexican, on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City in 1531. The Virgin instructed Juan Diego to have a church built on the site, and miraculously imprinted her image on his cloak, known as the tilma.
The earliest recorded use of the name Lupe as a given name is from the 18th century in Mexico, where it was a popular name among Catholic families in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The name gained wider popularity in the Spanish-speaking world and became a common name for girls of Hispanic descent.
One notable historical figure named Lupe is Lupe Vélez, a Mexican-American actress who was a popular Hollywood star in the 1920s and 1930s. She was born María Guadalupe Villarreal Vélez in 1908 and died in 1944.
Another prominent individual with the name Lupe is Lupe Fiasco, an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur, born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco in 1982. He is known for his socially conscious lyrics and activism.
Lupe Ontiveros, an American actress of Mexican descent, was born Guadalupe Ontiveros in 1942 and passed away in 2012. She was known for her roles in films such as "Selena" and "As Good as It Gets."
Lupe Valdez, born Guadalupe Valdez in 1947, is an American law enforcement officer and politician who served as the Sheriff of Dallas County, Texas, from 2005 to 2017.
Lupe Pintor, born Guadalupe Pintor in 1928, was a Mexican-American activist and co-founder of the Community Service Organization, a prominent civil rights organization in California in the 1940s and 1950s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lupe
People
Lupe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lupe 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
Lupe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lupe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,396 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lupe 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 32,970 US residents.
Is Lupe a common name?
We classify Lupe as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 24,633 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lupe most popular?
The single biggest year for Lupe was 1944, when 572 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lupe is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Lupe a female name?
Yes, 75.6% of people registered as Lupe 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.
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.