Lucky
Masculine · “fortunate”
Lucky is given to both — 3,624 boys and 602 girls since 1880. See Lucky as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lucky is a word about chance, and the word itself arrived by chance — English borrowed luck from Dutch gamblers in the fifteenth century and had no native word for it before.
How old is the name Lucky?
Lucky first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Lucky alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 2,900 people named Lucky are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lucky most popular?
Lucky peaked in 1945, reaching #927 nationally. Today it ranks #1571, 644 places below that high. See the whole 1945 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gheluc to Lucky
The story of Lucky
Lucky has been used as a nickname in English for centuries and appears in American records as a registered given name from the early twentieth century. It is also used across South Asia, where Lucky is a common informal name in India and Pakistan. It appears steadily in the American registers and is in current use.
Meaning
fortunate
From the English luck, borrowed from the Middle Dutch luc, a shortening of gheluc, 'happiness' or 'good fortune' — a gambling term that entered English through the Low Countries. Old English had wyrd, fate, but nothing that meant luck in the modern sense. The borrowing is documented.
How the name formed
- gheluc
- luc
- luck
- Lucky
Related forms: Geluk · Luckie · Glück
Pronouncing Lucky
LUK-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English adjective.
Nicknames for Lucky
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 boys named
- 2025108 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #927reached in 1945
- Change vs 2023
- +134.8%108 in 2025, from 46
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.
Lucky in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Geluk in Dutch — related form
- Luckie in English — spelling variant
- Glück in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Minnesota.
Luckys among us
people named Lucky are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,816 born in 2025 was named Lucky
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 Johney test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lucky's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johney climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johney's path sketches the road Lucky is walking now.
Lucky is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Lucky is headed
Lucky looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 21% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Lucky beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lucky in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Dutch gambling borrowing is a genuinely good piece of English word history.
- The meaning is transparent and needs no explanation anywhere.
- It is warm and immediately friendly.
- It is an ordinary English adjective and reads as a nickname.
- It is a very common name for dogs.
- It carries an expectation the bearer has no control over.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lucky
Masculine · #1571 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luckys 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 Lucky are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lucky in 2025?
- Lucky ranks #1571 among US boy names in 2025, with 108 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lucky?
- About 1 in every 15,816 US boys born in 2025 was named Lucky — 108 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lucky with classmates?
- Lucky will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lucky
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Constantine#1571 · Keon#1571 · Jiovanni#1571 · Emeric#1571 · Link#1571 · Neel#1571 · Vivaan#1571 · Alias#1571
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lucky? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lucky and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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