Ludwig
Masculine · “famous in war”
Clovis, Louis and Ludwig are one name. The Frankish king Chlodovech became Clovis in Latin, Louis in French and Ludwig in German, and eighteen French kings carried it: a single Frankish compound became the name of a monarchy.
How old is the name Ludwig?
Ludwig was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ludwig alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 800 people named Ludwig are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ludwig most popular?
Ludwig peaked in 1893, reaching #479 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,324 places below that high. See the whole 1893 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Chlodovech to Ludwig
The story of Ludwig
Clovis united the Franks and converted to Catholic Christianity around the year 500, which made him the founder of the French monarchy in retrospect and made his name the royal name of France; every Louis from the ninth century to the nineteenth carries it. German kept the form closer to the original, and Ludwig became one of the great German names: Beethoven, Wittgenstein, Feuerbach, and the Bavarian king who built Neuschwanstein. It reached United States records with the enormous nineteenth-century German migration and peaked in 1893, then declined sharply as those families anglicized.
Meaning
famous in war
From Germanic hlud, famous or loud, and wig, war or battle, giving famous in battle. The Frankish form Chlodovech was Latinized as Chlodovechus and thence Ludovicus, which French reduced to Louis and German to Ludwig. All are the same name; the Spanish Luis and Italian Luigi belong to it as well.
How the name formed
- Chlodovech
- Ludovicus
- Ludwig
Related forms: Louis · Luis · Luigi · Lodewijk · Lajos
Pronouncing Ludwig
LOOD-vig
Two syllables with the stress on the first. German gives the w a v sound, so it is never LOOD-wig; the final g is closer to a k in most German accents.
Nicknames for Ludwig
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 boys named
- 191688 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #479reached in 1893
- Change vs 2022
- +33.3%12 in 2025, from 9
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.
Ludwig in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Louis in French — same name
- Luis in Spanish — same name
- Luigi in Italian — same name
- Lodewijk in Dutch — same name
- Lajos in Hungarian — same name
Ludwigs among us
people named Ludwig are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Ludwig
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ludwig 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
Ludwig beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ludwig in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Germanic meaning and one of the most consequential names in European history.
- Related to Louis, Luis and Luigi, which few people realize.
- Marks a German or Austrian heritage unmistakably.
- English speakers will say the w as an English w.
- It is closely associated with one composer.
- In American records it belongs to the German generations of the 1890s.
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Ludwig
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ludwigs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Ludwig are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ludwig in 2025?
- Ludwig ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ludwig?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Ludwig — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ludwig with classmates?
- Ludwig will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ludwig
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ludwig? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ludwig and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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