Lupe
Feminine · “river of the wolf”
Lupe is given to both — 18,621 girls and 6,025 boys since 1880. See Lupe as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Lupe is the short form of Guadalupe — the Virgin of Tepeyac, the central religious figure of Mexico — and it is given to both sexes across the Spanish-speaking world.
How old is the name Lupe?
Lupe first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Lupe alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 9,000 people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lupe most popular?
Lupe peaked in 1927, reaching #317 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,891 places below that high. See the whole 1927 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From wadi to Lupe
The story of Lupe
The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared, in the tradition, to Juan Diego at Tepeyac in 1531, and became the central religious symbol of Mexico. Guadalupe is given to both sexes in her honor, and Lupe is its ordinary spoken form. Mexican-American families brought both to the United States, where Lupe appears through the twentieth century and peaked around 1930.
Meaningscholars disagree
river of the wolf; hidden river
Through Guadalupe, from the Arabic wadi, 'river' or 'valley', joined to a disputed second element — the Latin lupus, 'wolf', or an Arabic word meaning 'hidden'. The Spanish river gave its name to a shrine, and the shrine to the Mexican apparition of 1531.
How the name formed
- wadi
- Guadalupe
- Lupe
Related forms: Lupe · Lupita · Guadalupe
Pronouncing Lupe
LOO-pay
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically whichever sex carries it.
Nicknames for Lupe
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 1944434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #317reached in 1927
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Lupe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lupe in Spanish — same name
- Lupita in Spanish — related form
- Guadalupe in Spanish — related form
Lupes among us
people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Lupe
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 Isabell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lupe's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Isabell climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Isabell's path sketches the road Lupe is walking now.
Lupe 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
Lupe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lupe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the most significant religious symbols in the Americas.
- Lupita is available as a warm and very widely used diminutive.
- Two clean syllables, short and internationally legible.
- The parent name's second element is genuinely disputed.
- It is given to both sexes in Spanish and does not signal sex there.
- In English it can be misheard as the unrelated word 'loop'.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lupe
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lupes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,000 people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lupe in 2025?
- Lupe ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lupe?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Lupe — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lupe with classmates?
- Lupe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lupe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Jack#13208 · Charline#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lupe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lupe and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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