Lu
Lu was given to 7 girls in 2025, #12,648 among girls’ names; 4,081 Americans have been recorded with it since 1886 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,760 Americans named Lu and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (68% of everyone recorded); the median is 70 years old and half are between 65 and 72.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lu by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lu mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Lu is “a diminutive of the female given name Lucy and related names.”
Clipping of Lucy, Lucille, and similar names.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lu?
#12,648 among girls’ names, 2025
Lu entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #12,648 in 2025.
394 babies in 1954, the peak
Lu peaked in 1954, when 394 girls were given it, #441 among girls’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,648 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,729 | under 0.01 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,353 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,885 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,932 | under 0.01 |
| 2019 | 5 | #17,032 | under 0.01 |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,141 | under 0.01 |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,197 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,543 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,191 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (99)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 5 | #18,467 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,768 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,715 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,705 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,505 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,133 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,481 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 6 | #9,139 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,177 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,355 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,587 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,402 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 12 | #4,671 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 20 | #3,324 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 18 | #3,512 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 20 | #3,065 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 30 | #2,225 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 40 | #1,868 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 43 | #1,726 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 36 | #1,937 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 76 | #1,275 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 85 | #1,187 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 102 | #1,073 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 146 | #893 | 0.07 |
| 1960 | 169 | #788 | 0.08 |
| 1959 | 178 | #763 | 0.09 |
| 1958 | 205 | #692 | 0.10 |
| 1957 | 228 | #651 | 0.11 |
| 1956 | 302 | #539 | 0.15 |
| 1955 | 276 | #548 | 0.14 |
| 1954 | 394 | #441 | 0.20 |
| 1953 | 319 | #483 | 0.17 |
| 1952 | 50 | #1,376 | 0.03 |
| 1951 | 28 | #1,865 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 41 | #1,441 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 48 | #1,329 | 0.03 |
| 1948 | 36 | #1,563 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 43 | #1,427 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 33 | #1,546 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 44 | #1,201 | 0.03 |
| 1944 | 25 | #1,683 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 33 | #1,455 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 37 | #1,336 | 0.03 |
| 1941 | 40 | #1,199 | 0.03 |
| 1940 | 31 | #1,366 | 0.03 |
| 1939 | 29 | #1,391 | 0.03 |
| 1938 | 33 | #1,281 | 0.03 |
| 1937 | 34 | #1,244 | 0.03 |
| 1936 | 46 | #1,028 | 0.04 |
| 1935 | 41 | #1,093 | 0.04 |
| 1934 | 47 | #1,015 | 0.05 |
| 1933 | 28 | #1,388 | 0.03 |
| 1932 | 29 | #1,411 | 0.03 |
| 1931 | 23 | #1,618 | 0.02 |
| 1930 | 13 | #2,498 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,514 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 28 | #1,527 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 28 | #1,572 | 0.02 |
| 1926 | 19 | #2,045 | 0.02 |
| 1925 | 25 | #1,722 | 0.02 |
| 1924 | 19 | #2,095 | 0.02 |
| 1923 | 20 | #1,998 | 0.02 |
| 1922 | 13 | #2,694 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 14 | #2,575 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 12 | #2,817 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 15 | #2,332 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 13 | #2,605 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 14 | #2,382 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 12 | #2,587 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,638 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,548 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 6 | #3,045 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,828 | 0.01 |
| 1911 | 9 | #1,734 | 0.02 |
| 1910 | 6 | #2,302 | 0.02 |
| 1909 | 6 | #2,114 | 0.02 |
| 1907 | 6 | #1,963 | 0.02 |
| 1906 | 5 | #2,110 | 0.02 |
| 1905 | 7 | #1,630 | 0.02 |
| 1900 | 9 | #1,380 | 0.03 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,743 | 0.02 |
| 1898 | 7 | #1,455 | 0.03 |
| 1895 | 7 | #1,377 | 0.03 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,557 | 0.02 |
| 1891 | 6 | #1,285 | 0.03 |
| 1889 | 8 | #998 | 0.04 |
| 1888 | 5 | #1,396 | 0.03 |
| 1887 | 7 | #997 | 0.05 |
| 1886 | 6 | #1,052 | 0.04 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lu a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Lu has been given almost only to girls: 35 boys in 101 years of records.
Girls and boys named Lu: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lu, and how old are they?
2,760 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 68% of the 4,081 Americans ever recorded as Lu. The median Lu alive today is 70 years old; half are between 65 and 72.
The 2020 Census counted 6,744 people named Lu (5,257 women and girls, 1,487 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,998 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 183 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,200 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 254 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 26 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 89 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Lu born?
The states with the most babies named Lu are Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, with 35% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 288 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 235 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Texas | 204 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 183 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 157 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| North Carolina | 131 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 131 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Iowa | 121 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Michigan | 114 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| California | 83 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Lu is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Lu is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1910 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Lu with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 110,635 babies since 1880, Lu is the fourth most given (3.7% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 247 babies (2.8%), again the fourth most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Lu
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1880-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Luanne | 8,617 |
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Lu and names like it
- Compare Lu and LulaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sLu peaked in 1954.
- Ohio’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lu since 1910.
- The top names of 1954The year the most babies were named Lu.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Lu alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with LMost given first.