Head to head · Boys' names
Logan vs Luke
#53 vs #33 in 2025
Luke is a whisker ahead (#33 vs #53 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Luke is holding its place on the charts, Logan is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Logan and Luke each lead 2 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Logan #368, Luke #249 — Luke higher
- 1890s: Logan #518, Luke #285 — Luke higher
- 1900s: Logan #688, Luke #287 — Luke higher
- 1910s: Logan #710, Luke #403 — Luke higher
- 1920s: Logan #809, Luke #465 — Luke higher
- 1930s: Logan #931, Luke #514 — Luke higher
- 1940s: Logan #937, Luke #553 — Luke higher
- 1950s: Logan #1019, Luke #495 — Luke higher
- 1960s: Logan #1024, Luke #389 — Luke higher
- 1970s: Logan #828, Luke #249 — Luke higher
- 1980s: Logan #221, Luke #109 — Luke higher
- 1990s: Logan #65, Luke #88 — Logan higher
- 2000s: Logan #25, Luke #46 — Logan higher
- 2010s: Logan #15, Luke #33 — Logan higher
- 2020s: Logan #35, Luke #33 — Luke higher
Luke stood higher in 12 of 15 decades; Luke took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Logan | Luke |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #368 | #249 |
| 1890s | #518 | #285 |
| 1900s | #688 | #287 |
| 1910s | #710 | #403 |
| 1920s | #809 | #465 |
| 1930s | #931 | #514 |
| 1940s | #937 | #553 |
| 1950s | #1019 | #495 |
| 1960s | #1024 | #389 |
| 1970s | #828 | #249 |
| 1980s | #221 | #109 |
| 1990s | #65 | #88 |
| 2000s | #25 | #46 |
| 2010s | #15 | #33 |
| 2020s | #35 | #33 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Logan
- Canada#20
- Scotland#35
- England & Wales#76
Luke
- Canada#39
- Scotland#70
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Logan
little hollow
From Scottish Gaelic lagan, a diminutive of lag, 'hollow' or 'low-lying place' — the source of the place name Logan in Ayrshire, from which the surname comes. An unrelated Irish surname, Ó Leocháin, was also anglicized as Logan.
lag / lagan (Scottish Gaelic, 'hollow') → Logan (place, Ayrshire) → Logan (Scottish surname) → Logan (given name)
How it traveled
The oldest Logan is a piece of ground: a hollow in Ayrshire in southwest Scotland, whose name gave the local family theirs. Scottish and Ulster-Scots families carried the surname across the Atlantic, where it stuck to the map as well as to people — Mount Logan in the Yukon, Boston's Logan airport, the town of Logan, Utah.
Luke
From Lucania — a region of southern Italy
The Greek Loukas is generally read as a short form of Loukanos, 'man from Lucania', the ancient district in the south of the Italian peninsula. A separate popular association ties the name to Latin lux, 'light', because the two look alike; that connection is affectionate rather than linguistic.
Loukas → Lucas → Luk → Luke
How it traveled
The name begins in Greek as Loukas, a name of the kind Romans and Greeks used to mark where a person came from. It traveled into Latin as Lucas and then across Christian Europe attached to the evangelist Luke, credited with the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Logan
LOH-gan
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so it survives phone calls, roll calls and coffee cups without correction.
- Lo — The most common clipping, used among family and friends; works equally for a boy or a girl.
- Logie — Follows the Scottish -ie diminutive pattern; affectionate and household-level rather than public.
- Logs — A teammate-and-classmate nickname, informal and usually short-lived.
Luke
LOOK
One syllable with a long vowel, as in 'duke' and 'spook' — not the short vowel of 'look'. English, Canadian and Scottish speakers all say it the same way, and the German Lukas or French Luc are near enough that the name survives a border crossing intact.
- Luke — Widely used as the everyday short form of Lucas and Lucian, as well as standing alone as a full given name in its own right.
- Lukey — Informal and mostly domestic, used within families and in early childhood rather than on paper.
Who has carried each name
Logan
Logan Lerman (b. 1992) — Percy Jackson star
Luke
Luke Perry (b. 1966) — Beverly Hills, 90210 heartthrob
Luke Evans (b. 1979) — The Hobbit and Beauty and the Beast star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Logan if you want…
- a name fewer children share#53 in 2025 — logan will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name past its most crowded yearsLogan is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itLogan runs 2 syllables, Luke 1
- a name that charts abroad tooLogan is on the national lists of Canada, Scotland and England & Wales
Choose Luke if you want…
- a name most people already know#33 in 2025, 6,948 babies that year
- a name with fewer syllablesLuke is 1 syllable to Logan's 2
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 84% for Logan
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Logan
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds and known everywhere in the English-speaking world — little risk of lifelong correcting.
- Charts in Canada, Scotland and England & Wales as well as the US, so it travels without translation.
- Short and complete on its own; it needs no nickname, though Lo and Logie are there if wanted.
To consider
- It reads male to most people on paper. A girl named Logan will meet forms and rosters that assume otherwise — manageable, but worth knowing in advance.
- The name rose sharply and is now easing back, so it clusters heavily around people in their teens and twenties. It may sound of a particular moment rather than timeless for a while.
- Very little to shorten. If you like a long name with a private nickname inside it, Logan gives you almost nothing to work with.
Luke
Strengths
- One syllable, spelled the way it sounds. Almost nobody asks how to write it, and almost nobody gets it wrong on a form.
- An unbroken written record in English since the medieval Bible translations, and in Greek and Latin for centuries before that.
- Has a ready equivalent in most European languages — Lucas, Luc, Luca, Lukas, Łukasz — so relatives abroad have a version to use.
To consider
- It is already as short as it goes. There is no formal long version to fall back on and no real nickname territory, which suits some families and frustrates others.
- Luke, Lucas, Luca and Lukas all circulate at once. Expect occasional corrections, and expect a room to feel fuller of similar sounds than it strictly is.
- The Star Wars connection is permanent for a great many people, and will draw the odd comment for a lifetime. Most bearers find it wears down to background noise.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Logan
84%chance Logan feels dated by 2040
Logan is coming down from a big peak (#5 in 2017). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
Luke
40%chance Luke feels dated by 2040
Luke sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Logan and Luke in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- America's top 100 names right now
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Every list here names both Logan and Luke — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Logan or Luke — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Logan or Luke?
- Luke, in 2025: Luke ranked #33 with 6,948 babies; Logan ranked #53 with 5,576 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Logan or Luke?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Logan moved down 37 places; Luke moved down 2 places.
- Which is the older name, Logan or Luke?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Logan and Luke?
- About 380,000 people named Logan are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 310,000 people named Luke are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Logans or Lukes in the classroom?
- Logan will almost certainly be the only one in school. Roughly 1 in 10 classrooms will have a child named Luke.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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