Lucille
Feminine · “light”
Lucille is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 232,571 girls against 750 boys since 1880. See Lucille as a boy name
Lucille is the French form of a Latin name about light, recorded here for boys as well as girls. Both of the things it is best known for are about light: a saint associated with eyes and the shortest day, and a woman who ended up running a television studio.
How old is the name Lucille?
Lucille was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lucille alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 60,000 people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lucille most popular?
Lucille peaked in 1919, reaching #27 nationally. Today it ranks #237, 210 places below that high. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lucille appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Lucius to Lucille
The story of Lucille
Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and of eye trouble, and her feast falls in mid-December, which under the old calendar was the shortest day; Scandinavian countries still mark it with candles and processions at the darkest point of the year. The connection to light is in the name itself rather than in anything she did, and the association with eyes appears to have grown out of that. The other Lucille worth mentioning ran the most successful comedy on American television, and when the network balked, she and her husband financed it themselves, kept the film negatives, and eventually bought the studio that had once declined to give her a contract.
Meaning
light
The Latin lux, light, is behind the whole family, and the reading is settled. Lucille is the French diminutive form that English borrowed whole.
Cultural footprint
Lucille Ball (b. 1911) — I Love Lucy legend, first woman to run a major TV studio
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Lucius
- Lucia
- Lucille
Related forms: Lucille · Lucilla · Lucila
Pronouncing Lucille
loo-SEEL
Two syllables with the weight on the second. LOO-seel, with the stress in front, is heard in some American families.
Nicknames for Lucille
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
- 19187,902 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #27reached in 1919
- Change vs 2022
- +15.8%1,314 in 2025, from 1,135
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.
Lucille in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lucille in French — same name
- Lucilla in Italian — same name
- Lucila in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Lucilles among us
people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,223 born in 2025 was named Lucille
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 Gladys test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lucille's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gladys climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gladys's path sketches the road Lucille is walking now.
Lucille peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Lucille is headed
Lucille should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Lucille beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lucille 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 settled and can be given in one word.
- Lucy is available as a short form and is a complete name on its own.
- It works in English, French, Spanish and Italian households with only a shift of stress.
- In America it reads as belonging to an older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to girls but is recorded for boys as well, so a form will occasionally guess wrong.
- One television comedian has owned the name in American minds for seventy years.
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What they receive
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Lucille
Feminine · #237 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lucilles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 60,000 people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lucille in 2025?
- Lucille ranks #237 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,314 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lucille?
- About 1 in every 1,223 US girls born in 2025 was named Lucille — 1,314 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lucille with classmates?
- Lucille will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lucille
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alexandra#237 · Cataleya#237 · Nyla#236 · Andrea#235 · Camille#240 · Arianna#234 · Maisie#233 · Collins#241
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lucille? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lucille and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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