Lu
Feminine · “light”
Lu is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,046 girls against 35 boys since 1880.
Lucifer means light-bringer, and before it meant anything else it meant the morning star — the planet Venus, seen before dawn. Latin lux, light, gave lucid, translucent, elucidate, Lucy and Lucifer, and only one of those went wrong.
How old is the name Lu?
Lu first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Lu alive today was born around 1956, making them about 69 years old. About 2,900 people named Lu are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lu most popular?
Lu peaked in 1954, reaching #442 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,490 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lu appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From lux to Lu
The story of Lu
Lux is one of the tidiest Latin roots in English: lucid is clear, elucidate is to make clear, translucent lets light through, and Lucia was a name given to children born at daybreak. Lucifer, the light-bringer, was the Roman name for Venus as the morning star, and it became a name for the devil only because a passage in Isaiah about a fallen king was read as being about Satan, and the Latin Bible used the star's name in it. The Chinese Lu is unrelated and is not one name at all: four common surnames romanize the same way, and only the characters and the tones distinguish them, both of which are lost the moment the name is written in English.
Meaningscholars disagree
light, at one remove
In English-speaking families Lu is a clip of Lucy or Lucille, from Latin lux, light; or of Louise, from a Frankish battle-name. In Chinese it transliterates at least four distinct surnames written with different characters and said with different tones, which the Latin alphabet cannot tell apart.
How the name formed
- lux
- Lucia
- Lu
Related forms: Lu
Pronouncing Lu
LOO
One syllable. Mandarin gives it a tone English cannot reproduce, and the vowel sits further back. An English loo is understood everywhere it is used.
Nicknames for Lu
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 1954394 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #442reached in 1954
- Change vs 2023
- −36.4%7 in 2025, from 11
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.
Lu in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lu in Chinese — transliteration
Lus among us
people named Lu are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Lu
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ursula test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lu's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ursula climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ursula's path sketches the road Lu is walking now.
Lu 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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Lu beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lu in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two letters and one syllable: unmistakable across a room or a bad line.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- It works as a name in Chinese and as a clip in English, so it belongs in two households.
- Everyone will assume it is short for something and will ask.
- Two-letter names regularly fail minimum-length checks on forms and websites.
- In British English it is also a word for a lavatory, which is worth knowing before someone says so.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lu
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lus are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Lu are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lu in 2025?
- Lu ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lu?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Lu — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lu with classmates?
- Lu will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lu
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lu? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lu and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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