# Louise (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/louise/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | French |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /luːˈiːz/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Louisa |
| US babies named this | 338,662 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 2,196 / 336,466 (99% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 11,428, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From French Louise, the feminine form of Louis.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 125 | 1,688 |
| 2012 | 153 | 1,482 |
| 2013 | 197 | 1,225 |
| 2014 | 201 | 1,218 |
| 2015 | 243 | 1,081 |
| 2016 | 313 | 896 |
| 2017 | 339 | 807 |
| 2018 | 340 | 803 |
| 2019 | 428 | 677 |
| 2020 | 417 | 681 |
| 2021 | 460 | 651 |
| 2022 | 462 | 639 |
| 2023 | 514 | 583 |
| 2024 | 562 | 541 |
| 2025 | 579 | 516 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 8 | 4,774 |
| 1981 | 6 | 5,956 |
| 1982 | 11 | 3,838 |
| 1983 | 12 | 3,544 |
| 1984 | 14 | 3,205 |
| 1985 | 11 | 3,945 |
| 1986 | 7 | 5,703 |
| 1987 | 12 | 3,881 |
| 1988 | 5 | 8,045 |
| 1989 | 13 | 4,187 |
| 1992 | 7 | 7,124 |
| 1998 | 7 | 8,112 |
| 2001 | 9 | 7,274 |
| 2021 | 5 | 13,325 |
| 2022 | 8 | 9,517 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 171 | 288 |
| 2012 | 164 | 291 |
| 2013 | 124 | 366 |
| 2014 | 101 | 432 |
| 2015 | 106 | 417 |
| 2016 | 107 | 415 |
| 2017 | 87 | 499 |
| 2018 | 100 | 437 |
| 2019 | 72 | 562 |
| 2020 | 70 | 559 |
| 2021 | 53 | 709 |
| 2022 | 52 | 706 |
| 2023 | 59 | 627 |
| 2024 | 37 | 952 |
| 2025 | 44 | 816 |

## In other languages

- Catalan: Lluïsa
- Danish: Louise
- Finnish: Loviisa
- French: Louise
- German: Luise
- Irish: Laoise
- Italian: Luisa
- Latvian: Lavīze, Luīze
- Norwegian: Lovise
- Polish: Luiza
- Portuguese: Luísa
- Romanian: Luiza
- Russian: Луи́за, Луи́з
- Spanish: Luisa
- Swedish: Lovisa, Louise

## People named Louise

- Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, French portrait painter (1755–1842)
- Louise Fletcher, American actress (1934–2022)
- Louise Michel, French author and anarchist (1830-1905)
- Louise Bourgeois, French-American artist (1911-2010)
- Louise Labé, French poet of the Renaissance, born in Lyon (1524–1566)
- Louise Brooks, American actress (1906–1985)
- Louise Brown, first in-vitro baby
- Louise Erdrich, American-Ojibwe poet, novelist, and children's writer (born 1954)
- Louise Hay, American writer
- Louise Abbéma, French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque (1853-1927)
- Louise Dresser, American actress (1878–1965)
- Louise Bryant, American activist and journalist (1885–1936)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.