Luz
Feminine · “Light”
Luz is given to both — 27,874 girls and 931 boys since 1880. See Luz as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Luz is the Spanish word for light, used whole and unchanged as a name. It is one of a small set of Spanish women's names that are simply nouns — not derived from them, not softened, just the word itself given to a child.
How old is the name Luz?
Luz first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Luz alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 25,500 people named Luz are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Luz most popular?
Luz peaked in 1972, reaching #454 nationally. Today it ranks #838, 384 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Luz appears on these lists:
- Three-letter names: tiny and complete
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Names with a Z in them
- Quiet perennials: a century old, never popular
- Spanish and Latin names with warmth
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From Lux to Luz
The story of Luz
There is a second Luz with no connection to the Spanish one, and the coincidence is complete. In the Book of Genesis, Luz is the name of the place where Jacob sleeps on a stone, dreams of a ladder, and wakes to rename the town Bethel — so the old name is preserved in the text purely because it was replaced. Rabbinic tradition later attached a stranger story to the word: that the body contains one small indestructible bone, called the luz, which survives everything and from which a person is rebuilt. Neither of these has anything to do with a Spanish-speaking family naming a daughter for light. They are three unrelated words that arrived at the same three letters, which happens more often than etymology books like to admit.
Meaning
Light
From the Latin lux, and the same word that sits inside lucid, translucent and illuminate. In Spanish it is feminine, which is part of why it works as a woman's name without any ending added. Most bearers carry it as the last word of a longer religious title, shortened in daily use to the noun alone.
How the name formed
- Lux
- Luz
Related forms: Luz · Luce · Lux
Pronouncing Luz
LOOS
One syllable, ending in a clean s in Latin American Spanish and in a th sound in most of Spain. English speakers often say LUZ with a z, which is the one version nobody uses at home.
Nicknames for Luz
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 2006496 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #454reached in 1972
- Change vs 2022
- +12.5%324 in 2025, from 288
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.
Luz in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Luz in Portuguese — same name
- Luce in Italian — same name
- Lux in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Luzs among us
people named Luz are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,961 born in 2025 was named Luz
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 Carolee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Luz's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carolee climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carolee's path sketches the road Luz is walking now.
Luz is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Luz is headed
Luz looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Luz beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Luz in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is three letters long, said in one breath, and means something lovely with no explanation required in Spanish.
- It is common enough in Spanish-speaking America to be entirely familiar and rare enough in English to stand out.
- It combines easily with a second name, which is how it is most often used.
- English speakers will say the final letter as a z, and she will correct it or let it go.
- It is short to the point of being swallowed in a noisy room.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though it belongs overwhelmingly to the girls.
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What they receive
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Luz
Feminine · #838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Luzs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 25,500 people named Luz are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Luz in 2025?
- Luz ranks #838 among US girl names in 2025, with 324 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Luz?
- About 1 in every 4,961 US girls born in 2025 was named Luz — 324 in all.
- Will my child share the name Luz with classmates?
- Luz will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Luz
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sloan#838 · Jaliyah#838 · Braelynn#837 · Denver#836 · Hunter#841 · Amayah#841 · Michaela#841 · Zaniyah#833
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Luz? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Luz and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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