Luka
Masculine · “From Lucania”
Luka is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 28,959 boys against 563 girls since 1880. See Luka as a girl name
Luka is the form that Luke takes across the Slavic-speaking world and in Georgia, where it has been in steady use for centuries — the same name the Greek New Testament writes as Loukas. Two open syllables, both easy in almost any language, and no consonant in it that trips an English mouth. It has traveled to American playgrounds recently and quickly, largely on the strength of names carried by Croatian and Slovenian athletes.
How old is the name Luka?
Luka first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Luka is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 29,000 people named Luka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luka most popular?
Luka peaked in 2025, reaching #85 nationally. Today it ranks #85, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Loukas to Luka
The story of Luka
The name begins as Greek Loukas, borne by the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, and passes into Latin as Lucas. From there it spread with Christianity into every European language: Luke in English, Luca in Italian, Lukas in German, Lucas in Spanish and Portuguese. The Slavic and Georgian churches took it as Luka, and it has stayed in ordinary use in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Georgia ever since. Its recent American life is largely an import — the spelling arrived with families from those regions and then spread well beyond them.
Meaning
From Lucania — a man from the region of Lucania in southern Italy
Greek Loukas, Latin Lucas, is generally read as a regional byname meaning 'from Lucania'. A popular secondary association ties it to Latin lux, 'light', which is appealing but not the etymology scholars accept.
Cultural footprint
Luka Dončić (b. 1999) — NBA superstar
Luka Modrić (b. 1985) — Ballon d'Or-winning midfield maestro
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Loukas
- Lucas
- Luca
- Luka
Related forms: Luke · Luca · Lucas · Lukas · Loukas · Lukács
Pronouncing Luka
LOO-kah
Stress on the first syllable, the final vowel open like the 'a' in 'sofa' or fuller as in Slavic speech. Identical in sound to the Italian Luca, which is why the two spellings are often confused in writing but never in conversation.
Nicknames for Luka
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 20253,873 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #85reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +4.4%3,873 in 2025, from 3,708
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.
Luka in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Luke in English — same name
- Luca in Italian — spelling variant
- Lucas in Spanish, Portuguese — same name
- Lukas in German, Swedish — spelling variant
- Loukas in Greek — transliteration
- Lukács in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Lukas among us
people named Luka are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 441 born in 2025 was named Luka
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Luka
- #85
- Luka on the 2025 chart
- #4
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Luka went to 3,873 boys in 2025, but Luca and Lucca are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 13,502, which makes it the 4th most-given boys’ name of the year — 81 places above the chart.
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 boy in 127 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 441 for Luka itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Colin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Luka's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Colin climbed just as high around 2004, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Colin's path sketches the road Luka is walking now.
Luka is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Luka is headed
Luka looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 36% 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.
Luka beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luka in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, no difficult sounds, and pronounced essentially the same in English, Italian, Spanish, Slavic languages and Georgian.
- Short enough that it needs no nickname, while Luke sits ready as an English everyday form.
- A documented record stretching back to Greek Loukas in the first century, so it is old rather than newly coined.
- Recognizable to almost everyone through the Luke and Lucas families, even where the spelling itself is new to them.
- Luka, Luca, Lucca and Lucas all sound close or identical aloud, so expect to spell it out fairly often and to see it written the other ways.
- The spelling is currently rising fast in the US, so the sense of it being uncommon may not hold by the time your child reaches high school.
- It is strongly associated right now with Croatian and Slovenian sports stars, which can mean a decade of the same joke for a boy who has no interest in football or basketball.
- Suzanne Vega's 1987 song 'Luka' is sung in the voice of a boy of that name and deals with a child being hurt; listeners old enough to remember it sometimes mention it.
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What they receive
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Luka
Masculine · #85 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lukas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,000 people named Luka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Luka?
- Luka is one of 3 recorded spellings. Luca is the more common one — 8,759 births in 2025 against 3,873 for Luka.
- How popular is the name Luka in 2025?
- Luka ranks #85 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,873 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Luka?
- About 1 in every 441 US boys born in 2025 was named Luka — 3,873 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luka with classmates?
- Luka will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luka
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Gael#86 · Adriel#84 · Arthur#87 · Ian#83 · Jeremiah#88 · Theo#82 · August#81 · Jonathan#89
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luka? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luka and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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