Lou
Lou is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 70 births. Its best rank was 125th, in 1880.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 700.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 19541,495 births
- Best rank
- #125in 1880
- Since 1880
- 38,049people given the name
The story in the numbers
34,043 girls have been named Lou in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1954, with 1,495 births.
The name has all but left use: 70 births in 2024, against 1,495 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1942, and the 1950s alone account for 27%. It has spent 92 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 4,006 boys have also been given it, 11% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Lou | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,364 | |
| 1890s | 1,283 | |
| 1900s | 1,261 | |
| 1910s | 2,550 | |
| 1920s | 3,930 | |
| 1930s | 5,165 | |
| 1940s | 4,722 | |
| 1950s | 9,084 | |
| 1960s | 3,037 | |
| 1970s | 767 | |
| 1980s | 177 | |
| 1990s | 65 | |
| 2000s | 85 | |
| 2010s | 255 | |
| 2020s | 298 |
In 1954, its biggest year
Lou was the 204th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1954 were Mary, Linda, Deborah, Patricia and Susan. See all of 1954.
Names that rose and fell with Lou
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Pattiepeak 1958
- Georgiannapeak 1942
- Nanpeak 1947
- Partheniapeak 1923
- Rhodapeak 1926
- Minervapeak 1955
- Marthapeak 1947
- Frederickapeak 1947
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.