Luke
Feminine · “Latin Lucanus”
Luke is given to boys far more often — 323,020 boys against 565 girls since 1880. See Luke as a boy name
Luke is the patron saint of painters as well as doctors, on the strength of a tradition that he painted the Virgin from life. Guilds of St Luke ran the art trade across the Low Countries for four hundred years.
How old is the name Luke?
Luke first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Luke alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 600 people named Luke are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luke most popular?
Luke peaked in 1984, reaching #3423 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 6,684 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lucanus to Luke
The story of Luke
One line in the letter to the Colossians calls Luke the beloved physician, and that is the whole basis for his patronage of doctors. The painting tradition is later and has no textual support at all, but it was believed thoroughly: several icons of the Virgin were attributed to his hand, and painters organized themselves under his name. The Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, Delft, Bruges and elsewhere controlled who could sell paintings, train apprentices and call themselves a master, from the fourteenth century into the eighteenth; Vermeer, Rubens and Bruegel were all members of one. A gospel writer nobody can identify with certainty therefore ended up governing the European art market for four centuries.
Meaning
Latin Lucanus, from Lucania
Luke is the English form of Lucas, from Latin Lucanus, a man from Lucania in southern Italy. The name is male in every tradition that uses it; its small American female peak is 1984.
How the name formed
- Lucanus
- Loukas
- Luke
Related forms: Lucas · Luca · Luc
Pronouncing Luke
LOOK
One syllable. It is a near-homophone of the ordinary English verb look for many American speakers.
Nicknames for Luke
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 200436 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3423reached in 1984
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%9 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.
Luke in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lucas in Spanish — same name
- Luca in Italian — same name
- Luc in French — same name
Lukes among us
people named Luke are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Luke
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 Darrelyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Luke's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darrelyn climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darrelyn's path sketches the road Luke is walking now.
Luke 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
Luke beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luke in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, four letters, impossible to misspell.
- It is recognized everywhere in the Christian world.
- Lu works as a short form for either sex.
- The name is male in every tradition that uses it.
- Its female use in America is small and brief.
- It is very close in sound to the verb look.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Luke
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lukes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Luke are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Luke in 2025?
- Luke ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Luke?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Luke — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luke with classmates?
- Luke will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luke
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luke? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luke and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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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