Louise
Masculine · “famous in battle”
Louise is given to girls far more often — 336,466 girls against 2,196 boys since 1880. See Louise as a girl name
The final e here is not a silent decoration. Louis ends in a vowel sound with the s dropped entirely; Louise sounds the s, turns it into a z, and moves the stress to the back. One letter changes the last consonant and the rhythm of the whole word, which is more work than a silent e usually does.
How old is the name Louise?
Louise first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Louise alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 600 people named Louise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Louise most popular?
Louise peaked in 1887, reaching #516 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hludwig to Louise
The story of Louise
Very few names come back. A name that has peaked and fallen usually keeps falling for a century and then stays where it lands; the ones that return are rare enough to be worth noticing. This one peaked before the First World War, declined for the better part of eighty years, and has been climbing again for the last two decades, which puts it in a small category with Alice, Hazel and a handful of others. The pattern is roughly a hundred years, long enough that a name stops sounding like a grandmother's and starts sounding like nobody's, at which point it becomes available again. Names do not so much go out of fashion as go out of living memory.
Meaning
famous in battle
Two Germanic elements, the first meaning fame or renown and the second meaning battle or war. The compound is very old and its sense is secure, whatever route any particular family took to the French form.
How the name formed
- Hludwig
- Louis
- Louise
Related forms: Luise · Luisa · Luisa · Luísa
Pronouncing Louise
loo-EEZ
Two syllables with the weight at the back and a z on the end. The masculine form drops its final consonant entirely, which is the main thing English speakers get wrong about the pair.
Nicknames for Louise
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 192858 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #516reached in 1887
- Change vs 2001
- −11.1%8 in 2022, from 9
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Louise in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Luise in German — same name
- Luisa in Italian — same name
- Luisa in Spanish — same name
- Luísa in Portuguese — same name
Louises among us
people named Louise are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Louise sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is currently returning, which means it sounds neither dated nor invented.
- Lou is a short form that works in any register and at any age.
- It is recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- Louisa is a separate and equally standard name that will be substituted.
- The pronunciation of the masculine form trips people up and reflects onto this one.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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Louise
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Louises are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Louise are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Louise in 2025?
- Louise is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Louise with classmates?
- Louise will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Louise? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Louise and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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