Lucile
Feminine · “light”
Lucile is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 34,887 girls against 96 boys since 1880.
Lucile is the French spelling with one l, and the whole family behind it — Lucy, Lucia, Lucille, Lucinda — is built on the Latin word for light.
How old is the name Lucile?
Lucile was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lucile alive today was born around 1917, making them about 108 years old. About 3,500 people named Lucile are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lucile most popular?
Lucile peaked in 1908, reaching #115 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,872 places below that high. See the whole 1908 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lux to Lucile
The story of Lucile
Lucius was one of the oldest Roman given names, and its feminine Lucia was carried across Christian Europe by a Sicilian martyr whose cult reached as far as Sweden. French produced Lucile and Lucille from the diminutive Lucilla, and both spellings crossed to America in the nineteenth century. Lucile with one l was the earlier of the two in American records, peaking around 1908, before the double-l spelling overtook it.
Meaning
light
From the Latin lux, 'light', through the name Lucius. Roman practice connected the name to children born at daybreak, and the association held: Saint Lucia's feast falls near the winter solstice and is still marked in Scandinavia with candles, which is the same idea carried across fifteen centuries.
How the name formed
- lux
- Lucius
- Lucilla
- Lucile
Related forms: Lucile · Lucilla · Lucía · Lucille
Pronouncing Lucile
loo-SEEL
Two syllables, stress on the second. Lucile and Lucille are homophones in English; French gives the second syllable a purer vowel.
Nicknames for Lucile
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19171,516 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #115reached in 1908
- Change vs 2022
- −13.3%26 in 2025, from 30
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.
Lucile in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lucile in French — same name
- Lucilla in Italian — related form
- Lucía in Spanish — related form
- Lucille in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Washington, Texas.
Luciles among us
people named Lucile are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Lucile
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lucile
- #4987
- Lucile on the 2025 chart
- #249
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lucile went to 26 girls in 2025, but Lucille is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,340, which makes it the 249th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,738 places above the chart.
- Lucille1,314
- Lucile26
About 1 girl in 1,199 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Lucile itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Lucile 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
Where Lucile is headed
Lucile should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Lucile beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lucile in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent, undisputed and unusually attractive.
- The whole family — Lucy, Lucia, Lucille, Lucinda — is available at different lengths and registers.
- It is standard in French, so it crosses that border without adjustment.
- Lucille is commoner in American records and will be assumed by anyone writing it down.
- The name is period-coded to the turn of the last century.
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Lucile
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luciles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Lucile are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lucile?
- Lucile is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lucille is the more common one — 1,314 births in 2025 against 26 for Lucile.
- How popular is the name Lucile in 2025?
- Lucile ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lucile?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Lucile — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lucile with classmates?
- Lucile will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lucile
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lucile? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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