Lula
Feminine · “famous warrior”
Lula is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 85,248 girls against 339 boys since 1880.
Lula is a reduplication softened — the doubling of a syllable that nearly every language uses for children, given one more vowel. It served Louise and Lucy alike in nineteenth-century America.
How old is the name Lula?
Lula was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lula alive today was born around 1918, making them about 107 years old. About 15,000 people named Lula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lula most popular?
Lula peaked in 1881, reaching #36 nationally. Today it ranks #1927, 1,891 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lula appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Hludwig to Lula
The story of Lula
Doubling a syllable to make an affectionate name is one of the oldest naming habits there is, and English produced Lulu, Lula, Coco, Mimi and Dodie the same way. Lula was in ordinary spoken use as a pet form of Louise and Lucy through the nineteenth century, and American families registered it outright in very large numbers — it stood in the top forty for girls in the 1880s.
Meaningscholars disagree
famous warrior; light
Read as a pet form of Louise, the meaning is the Germanic hlud, 'famous', and wig, 'war' — the compound behind Louis and Ludwig. Read as a pet form of Lucy, it is the Latin lux, 'light'. Read as a reduplication built from the sound alone, it means nothing at all, which is also a legitimate answer.
How the name formed
- Hludwig
- Louise
- Lula
Related forms: Lulu · Lula · Lula
Pronouncing Lula
LOO-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish and Portuguese say it the same way.
Nicknames for Lula
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 girls named
- 19211,778 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #36reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%100 in 2025, from 100
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.
Lula in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lulu in English — related form
- Lula in Spanish — same name
- Lula in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Lulas among us
people named Lula are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,073 born in 2025 was named Lula
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
Lula 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
Where Lula is headed
Lula should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Lula beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lula in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Louise and Lucy are both available behind it as formal forms with deep documented use.
- It is one of the easiest names in the world for a small child to say.
- Soft throughout, with no hard consonants anywhere in it.
- Reduplicated names read as affectionate rather than formal, and that does not change with age.
- It is strongly period-coded to the late nineteenth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Lula
Feminine · #1927 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lulas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Lula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lula in 2025?
- Lula ranks #1927 among US girl names in 2025, with 100 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lula?
- About 1 in every 16,073 US girls born in 2025 was named Lula — 100 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lula with classmates?
- Lula will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lula
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isela#1927 · Ahuva#1927 · Estefany#1927 · Cove#1927 · Cindy#1927 · Cori#1927 · Collyns#1927 · Coral#1927
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lula? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lula and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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