Lurdes
Of Spanish origin, derived from the name of the Marian sanctuary Our Lady of Lourdes.
Name Census estimates that about 383 living Americans carry the first name Lurdes. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lurdes today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lurdes births was 1977 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lurdes. 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.
People living today
383
~ 1 in 894,920 Americans
Peak year
1977
17 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2011 SSA rank
#18,454
Tracked since 1953
Census
Lurdes in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 889 people with the first name Lurdes, which placed it at #13,542 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
#13,542
National first-name rank
People counted
889
889 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lurdes
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lurdes is Hispanic at 83.0%. The next largest groups are White (14.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.9%). 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 Lurdes 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 Lurdes at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino83.0% · 738
- White14.7% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 8
- Black or African American0.7% · 6
- Two or more races0.4% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Lurdes: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lurdes from the 1950s through to the 2010s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 107 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lurdes 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 Lurdes during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lurdes' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Lurdes, while Texas, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 35 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lurdes
Lurdes is a Spanish feminine given name derived from the place name Lourdes, a small town in southwestern France near the Pyrenees mountains. The name ultimately traces its origins to the ancient Aquitanian language once spoken in the region before the Roman conquest. It is believed to be related to the word "lorda" or "lourde" which referred to a small stream or river flowing near the town.
In the year 1858, a young peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous reported visions of the Virgin Mary near a grotto in Lourdes. This led to the town becoming one of the most famous Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. As a result, the name Lurdes (or Lourdes in French) grew in popularity as a feminine name among Catholics, particularly in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Lurdes can be found in the 16th century Spanish novel "La Lozana Andaluza" by Francisco Delicado, published in 1528. In the novel, a character named Lurdes is mentioned, indicating that the name was already in use at that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lurdes. These include Lurdes de Campos (1910-1990), a Brazilian actress and singer; Lurdes Mutola (born 1972), a Mozambican track and field athlete who won multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medals in the 800 meters; Lurdes Fernández (born 1954), a Cuban poet and writer; and Lurdes Bergada (1957-2012), a Spanish writer and feminist activist.
Another famous bearer of the name was Lurdes Albuquerque (1912-1990), a Portuguese sculptor and ceramist known for her modernist works. She helped revive traditional Portuguese pottery techniques and was a leading figure in the country's artistic renaissance in the mid-20th century.
People
Lurdes + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lurdes 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
Lurdes: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lurdes?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 383 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lurdes 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 894,920 US residents.
Is Lurdes a common name?
We classify Lurdes as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 423 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lurdes most popular?
The single biggest year for Lurdes was 1977, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lurdes is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lurdes in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 889 people with the name Lurdes, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,542 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 Lurdes 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 Lurdes?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lurdes appears almost entirely female. Of the 887 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Lurdes?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lurdes is Hispanic at 83.0%. The next largest groups are White (14.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.9%). 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 Lurdes most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Lurdes in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (738 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 Lurdes in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lurdes a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lurdes 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 Lurdes still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lurdes 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 Lurdes 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 Lurdes as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Lurdes, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.