Lux
Masculine · Latin roots · “Light (Latin)”
Lux is given to both — 1,528 boys and 1,653 girls since 1880. See Lux as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lux is the Latin word for light — the word in the Vulgate's fiat lux, the word in the Requiem's lux aeterna, and the word cut into university mottoes long before anyone put it on a birth certificate. Three letters, one syllable, and that final x giving it a clean stop. As a given name it is very new; as a word it is about as old as written Latin.
How old is the name Lux?
Lux first appears in US birth records in 2001 — 24 years ago. The typical Lux is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,500 people named Lux are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lux most popular?
Lux peaked in 2022, reaching #979 nationally. Today it ranks #1166, 187 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lux appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From lux (Latin, 'light') to Lux
The story of Lux
Lux is Latin, plain and unaltered: the noun for light, familiar from the Vulgate's fiat lux in Genesis and from lux aeterna in the Requiem Mass, and still carried in the mottoes of several universities. The same root produced a family of personal names long ago — Lucius and Lucia in Latin, Lucy in English, Luz in Spanish and Portuguese, Luce in Italian — all of them derived words rather than the bare noun. In the twentieth century lux was also adopted as the scientific unit of illuminance, which is why the word turns up on light meters and camera specifications. Using the noun itself as a first name is a modern move, part of a broader taste for short, hard-edged word-names, and in the United States it is given to both boys and girls.
Meaning
Light (Latin)
Lux is the ordinary Latin noun for light, genitive lucis — grammatically a feminine noun, though that has no bearing on how the name is used today.
How the name formed
- luxLatin, 'light'
- Lucius / Lucia
- Lucy, Luz, Luce
- Lux
Related forms: Luz · Luz · Luce · Lucius · Lucy
Pronouncing Lux
LUKS
Rhymes with ducks. The same in Latin, English, and the scientific unit — one pronunciation everywhere, and no one has to ask twice.
Nicknames for Lux
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
- 2001
- Most boys named
- 2022230 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #979reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- +7.9%177 in 2025, from 164
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.
Lux in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Luz in Spanish — related form
- Luz in Portuguese — related form
- Luce in Italian — related form
- Lucius in Latin — related form
- Lucy in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Luxs among us
people named Lux are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,650 born in 2025 was named Lux
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 Desi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lux's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Desi climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Desi's path sketches the road Lux is walking now.
Lux 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 Lux is headed
Lux looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Lux beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lux in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, three letters, spelled exactly as it sounds — almost nothing to correct over a lifetime of forms and roll calls.
- A real Latin word with a documented meaning, so the meaning question has a straight answer.
- Recognizable across languages: readers of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Latin all know the root on sight.
- Sits in a family of long-established names — Lucius, Lucia, Lucy, Luz — if a longer formal option is ever wanted.
- The word has commercial company: Lux is a long-running international soap brand, and English ears hear 'luxe' and 'luxury' nearby. Most people land on 'light' quickly, but expect the occasional double meaning.
- In US records Lux is given to both boys and girls, with neither side dominant. A boy named Lux may sometimes be assumed to be a girl on paper, and vice versa — usually a one-line correction, but a recurring one.
- Because the name is genuinely new as a name, some people will need a beat to register it as one at all. The upside is the same fact: a Lux will rarely share the name with anyone in the building.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lux to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lux
Masculine · Latin roots · #1166 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luxs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Lux are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lux in 2025?
- Lux ranks #1166 among US boy names in 2025, with 177 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lux?
- About 1 in every 9,650 US boys born in 2025 was named Lux — 177 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lux with classmates?
- Lux will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lux
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kilian#1166 · Denzel#1166 · Rafe#1165 · Korbin#1169 · Benaiah#1169 · Mikael#1169 · Jean#1169 · Eythan#1169
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lux? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lux and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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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