Luther
Masculine · “people-army”
Luther is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 66,986 boys against 435 girls since 1880.
Luther is one of the few surnames that became a first name because of a single person's fame, and it has stayed in American use ever since. It sits in the mouth cleanly: a long OO, then the soft th of "other", stress landing on the first syllable. Two syllables, one spelling, no ambiguity.
How old is the name Luther?
Luther was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Luther alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 21,500 people named Luther are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luther most popular?
Luther peaked in 1887, reaching #63 nationally. Today it ranks #1459, 1,396 places below that high. See the whole 1887 chart.
Luther appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Liuthari to Luther
The story of Luther
The name began as a Germanic personal name and settled into a German family surname, spelled variously — the reformer Martin Luther, born in the 1480s, came from a family that wrote it Luder before he fixed the spelling we use. His fame turned the surname into a given name across Protestant Europe, and English-speaking families were using it as a first name well before it reached American birth records. It traveled to the United States with German and Scandinavian settlers in particular, which is part of why it still shows well in the upper Midwest as well as in the large southern and western states. In 1934 Michael King Sr. renamed himself and his young son after the reformer, and that second Martin Luther gave the name a whole further life in American English.
Meaningscholars disagree
"people-army" — from Germanic liut (people) and heri (army)
The usual derivation runs from an old Germanic personal name Leuthar or Liuthari, liut "people" plus heri "army". A competing line traces the surname instead to Lothar, from hlud "famous" and the same heri, giving "famous warrior". Both are Germanic, both end in the same word for army; the disagreement is over the first half.
How the name formed
- Liuthari
- Lothar
- Luder
- Luther
Related forms: Lothar · Lothaire · Lotario · Lutero · Lutherus · Лютер
Pronouncing Luther
LOO-thur
The th is voiced, as in "other", not hissed as in "think". In German the name is said LOO-ter, with a plain t — worth knowing if the family has German-speaking relatives.
Nicknames for Luther
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 boys named
- 19211,453 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #63reached in 1887
- Change vs 2022
- +8.9%122 in 2025, from 112
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.
Luther in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lothar in German — related form
- Lothaire in French — related form
- Lotario in Italian — related form
- Lutero in Spanish — related form
- Lutherus in Latin — spelling variant
- Лютер in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Minnesota.
Luthers among us
people named Luther are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,001 born in 2025 was named Luther
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
Luther 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 Luther is headed
Luther should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Luther beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luther in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling, and one nearly everyone already recognizes — heard once, it is written correctly.
- Two syllables with the stress up front, which sits well against both short and long surnames.
- Present in American records continuously, through every shift of fashion, rather than arriving and vanishing with one decade.
- The same Germanic root appears across Europe as Lothar, Lothaire and Lotario, so the name is not unplaceable abroad.
- Uncommon enough now that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- The name arrives carrying two enormous men — the sixteenth-century reformer and Martin Luther King Jr. Most people will think of one or the other. For some families that is exactly the point; for others it is a lot to hand a small child.
- Lex Luthor, Superman's antagonist, is spelled differently but sounds identical. Children who watch the films will notice, usually once.
- It resists shortening. Lu and Lute exist, but they are thin on the ground, so in practice he will be Luther most of the time.
- The name is still strongly represented among older generations, so it can read as a grown man's name on a toddler for a while. That is the ordinary position of a name that has kept a steady, unbroken presence rather than a fashionable spike.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Luther to the vote.
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What they receive
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Luther
Masculine · #1459 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luthers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,500 people named Luther are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Luther in 2025?
- Luther ranks #1459 among US boy names in 2025, with 122 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Luther?
- About 1 in every 14,001 US boys born in 2025 was named Luther — 122 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luther with classmates?
- Luther will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luther
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jakobe#1459 · Ross#1459 · Leander#1459 · Jai#1459 · Jaxen#1459 · Giuseppe#1459 · Monte#1466 · Joao#1466
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luther? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luther and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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