Luis
Feminine · “famous in battle”
Luis is given to boys far more often — 292,959 boys against 1,541 girls since 1880. See Luis as a boy name
Louis the Ninth bought the Crown of Thorns from the bankrupt Latin emperor of Constantinople and built a chapel in Paris to hold it. The relic cost more than three times what the building did. The Sainte-Chapelle is still standing and is mostly glass.
How old is the name Luis?
Luis first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Luis alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 1,400 people named Luis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luis most popular?
Luis peaked in 1986, reaching #2079 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 9,853 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Where it comes from
From Chlodovech to Luis
The story of Luis
The name went through eighteen French kings, and one of them was made a saint — Louis the Ninth, who led two crusades, died of dysentery outside Tunis on the second, and spent enormous sums on relics in between. That canonization is the reason the name is on so much of the American map. French traders named a settlement on the Mississippi after the patron saint of the reigning Louis, and it became St Louis; the whole territory west of the river was named Louisiana after Louis the Fourteenth; and San Luis appears repeatedly across the Spanish-settled southwest. Spanish took the name from French and made it two syllables, and it has been among the most given men's names in the Spanish-speaking world ever since.
Meaning
famous in battle
From Frankish Chlodovech: hlud, loud or famous, with wig, battle. Luis is the Spanish and Portuguese form, Louis the French, Ludwig the German, Luigi the Italian. All descend from the name of the first Christian king of the Franks.
How the name formed
- Chlodovech
- Ludovicus
- Louis
- Luis
Related forms: Louis · Luigi · Ludwig · Luis · Lajos
Pronouncing Luis
loo-EES
Two syllables, stress on the second, in Spanish. English speakers often say LOO-is with the weight at the front, or LOO-ee following the French, which drops the s entirely.
Nicknames for Luis
High
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 199153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2079reached in 1986
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%7 in 2025, from 7
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.
Luis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Louis in French — same name
- Luigi in Italian — same name
- Ludwig in German — same name
- Luis in Portuguese — same name
- Lajos in Hungarian — same name
Luiss among us
people named Luis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Luis
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 Karalee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Luis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Karalee climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Karalee's path sketches the road Luis is walking now.
Luis 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
Luis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Frankish meaning with both elements traceable, one of them into modern English.
- The same four letters in Spanish and Portuguese, and recognizable in six more languages.
- Four short forms, two of them genuinely Spanish rather than anglicized.
- Continuous documented use for fifteen hundred years.
- English speakers regularly move the stress to the front or drop the s.
- Louis and Luis are the same name and will be interchanged on paperwork.
- It is among the most given names in the Spanish-speaking world, so it carries no signal there.
- The very few girls given this spelling will be read as boys on every form.
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What they receive
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Luis
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luiss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Luis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Luis in 2025?
- Luis ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Luis?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Luis — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luis with classmates?
- Luis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sayde#11932 · Delphina#11932 · Korey#11932 · Kylea#11932 · Dory#11932 · Chelsi#11932 · Merlyn#11932 · Elizabet#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luis and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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