Lupe
Masculine · “Arabic wadi”
Lupe is given to both — 6,025 boys and 18,621 girls since 1880. See Lupe as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Guadalupe is half Arabic. Wadi is a valley, and the Spanish shrine in Extremadura carries that word four hundred miles from the nearest Arabic speaker. The Mexican apparition of 1531 took its name from the Spanish one, not the other way round.
How old is the name Lupe?
Lupe first appears in US birth records in 1899 — 126 years ago. The typical Lupe alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 2,900 people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lupe most popular?
Lupe peaked in 1945, reaching #496 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 9,218 places below that high. See the whole 1945 chart.
Where it comes from
From wadi to Lupe
The story of Lupe
The monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Extremadura was one of the great Spanish pilgrimage sites from the fourteenth century, patronized by the Catholic monarchs, and Columbus named an island for it in 1493. The wadi in its name is one of a very large number of Arabic river names left across Spain after eight centuries: Guadalquivir is wadi al-kabir, the great river, and Guadiana, Guadalajara and Guadix all carry the same element. When the apparition to Juan Diego was reported at Tepeyac in 1531, the title Guadalupe attached to it, and how that happened is argued, with one theory proposing a Nahuatl phrase misheard by Spanish ears. The Mexican Virgin then became the most important religious image in the Americas, and the name is now far commoner in Mexico than in Spain.
Meaningscholars disagree
Arabic wadi, a valley
Lupe is a short form of Guadalupe, used for both sexes in Spanish. The place name in Extremadura joins Arabic wadi, a valley or river, to a second element that is disputed; readings include a Latin word for wolf and an Arabic one for black. The Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe takes her title from the Spanish shrine. The American male peak is 1945.
How the name formed
- wadi
- Guadalupe
- Lupe
Related forms: Guadalupe · Lupita
Pronouncing Lupe
LOO-pay
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final e is fully sounded in Spanish. English speakers often say LOOP, treating the e as silent.
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
- 1899
- Most boys named
- 1946153 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #496reached in 1945
- Change vs 2019
- 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.
Lupe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Guadalupe in Spanish — related form
- Lupita in Spanish — related form
Lupes among us
people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 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 Marcel 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: Marcel climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcel'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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Guadalupe is available as the formal version.
- Four letters and two syllables, easy to say.
- It is used for both sexes in Spanish.
- English readers will treat the final e as silent.
- It is read as a woman's name by many Americans.
- It carries a strong specific religious association.
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What they receive
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Lupe
Masculine · #9714 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 2,900 people named Lupe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lupe in 2025?
- Lupe ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lupe?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Lupe — 7 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.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lupe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lupe 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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