Lucille
Masculine · “light”
Lucille is given to girls far more often — 232,571 girls against 750 boys since 1880. See Lucille as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Lucille alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Lucille most popular?
Lucille peaked in 1909, reaching #756 nationally. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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.
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
- 1900
- Most boys named
- 192632 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #756reached in 1909
- Change vs 1952
- 0.0%5 in 1953, 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.
Lucille in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lucille in French — same name
- Lucilla in Italian — same name
- Lucila in Spanish — same name
Lucilles among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Lucille 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
- 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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Lucille
Masculine
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. Fewer than a hundred people named Lucille are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Lucille in 2025?
- Lucille is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lucille with classmates?
- Lucille 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 Lucille? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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