Luba
Feminine · “love”
Luba is the short form of one of the three sister names of Russian tradition. Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov are the ordinary Russian words for faith, hope and love, given as names to three sisters in a very old martyrdom story, and all three have been in continuous use ever since. Luba is what Lyubov becomes among people who know her.
How old is the name Luba?
Luba first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Luba alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 300 people named Luba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luba most popular?
Luba peaked in 1952, reaching #2126 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 12,816 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Where it comes from
From Lyubov to Luba
The story of Luba
Slavic naming has always used ordinary words directly — light, world, peace, glory — and the Christian virtues fitted straight into that habit when they arrived. Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov became standard Russian and Ukrainian names and stayed standard through every upheaval of the last century, in part because they are not saints' names in the usual sense and were not tied to any institution. Luba reached American records with immigration from the Russian Empire, and it arrived as an affectionate form rather than a formal one, which is how these names travel.
Meaning
love
Lyubov is the plain Russian noun for love, and it is a woman's name without any adjustment at all — the word is simply used. Lyuba and Luba are its affectionate forms. The three-sister story, in which Faith, Hope and Love are the daughters of a woman named Sophia, is why the set exists as names; it gave the abstractions a household to belong to. The meaning is settled and it is the same word a Russian speaker uses in an ordinary sentence.
How the name formed
- Lyubov
- Lyuba
- Luba
Related forms: Любовь · Liuba · Luba · Libuše
Pronouncing Luba
LOO-buh
LOO-buh, two syllables, stress at the front. Russian softens the l slightly, closer to LYOO-ba, which English does not attempt and does not need to. The spelling is unambiguous either way.
Nicknames for Luba
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 195223 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2126reached in 1952
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
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.
Luba in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Любовь in Russian — transliteration
- Liuba in Ukrainian — same name
- Luba in Polish — same name
- Libuše in Czech — related form
Lubas among us
people named Luba are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Luba
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 Lavella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Luba's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lavella climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lavella's path sketches the road Luba is walking now.
Luba 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
Luba beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luba in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and no ambiguity about how any of it is said.
- The meaning is a single ordinary word, settled and easy to explain.
- It belongs to a set of three names with a shared story, which very few names can claim.
- It is an affectionate form rather than a formal one, and Russian speakers will hear it that way even where English speakers do not.
- Luba, Lyuba and Liuba are all used in English records, so the spelling gets asked about.
- The name reads as distinctly Eastern European in American rooms, which is either the point or a conversation that recurs.
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What they receive
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Luba
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lubas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Luba are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Luba in 2025?
- Luba ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Luba?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Luba — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luba with classmates?
- Luba will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luba
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Shalaya#14942 · Chyann#14942 · Yennifer#14942 · Joselyne#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luba? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luba and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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