Lois

Lois: a biblical name with a separate Galician history

English Lois is a feminine name from Greek, possibly connected with a word meaning “better” or “more desirable.” Its familiar pronunciation is LOH-iss, with two syllables and the emphasis at the beginning.

Galician Lois is a separate masculine form of Louis, sharing the older meaning “famous in battle.” Writer Lois Lowry gives the English feminine name a particularly substantial literary association through books including Number the Stars and The Giver.

The biblical Lois and later English use

The New Testament mentions Lois as the mother of Eunice and grandmother of Timothy. That family connection gave the name a clear place in Christian tradition, even though its deeper Greek interpretation remains a proposal rather than a settled translation.

As an English given name, Lois came into use after the Protestant Reformation. Its later American popularity became especially strong during the first decades of the twentieth century.

The Galician form developed from a different name family. Through Louis, it reaches the Germanic fame-and-battle compound behind Ludwig. Its one-syllable pronunciation is closer to loyss, contrasting with the two-syllable English feminine name.

Lois Lowry and books for young readers

Lois Lowry won the Newbery Medal in 1990 for Number the Stars and again in 1994 for The Giver. Those two awards give her full first name an especially recognizable place in American children’s literature.

The Giver follows twelve-year-old Jonas in a carefully ordered society. He initially fits comfortably within its rules, but his selection as the new Receiver begins to reveal truths that had been hidden from him.

The story turns an apparently secure community into the setting for difficult questions about knowledge, memory, and choice. Its central character’s changing understanding gives young readers a way into those questions through a personal narrative rather than an abstract argument.

Pronunciation and the two name traditions

English LOH-iss begins with the long oh sound heard in “go.” The written oi does not normally become the oy sound of “voice”; instead, the vowels belong to separate syllables.

Galician Lois brings its sounds together into one syllable. The shared spelling thus belongs to two established forms with different origins, meanings, and usual gender traditions.

Louis is the immediate relative of the Galician masculine name. The English feminine Lois keeps its separate Greek and biblical history, with its own recognizable sound and cultural bearers.

Popularity in the United States

Lois reached its largest American girls’ count in 1927, with 10,505 births. Its best rank followed in 1929, at number seventeen.

It ranked 1,880th in 2015, 1,846th in 2020, and 1,670th in 2025. The name remains much less common on recent birth records than during its early-twentieth-century peak, while Lowry’s books keep the complete form familiar to new readers.

How popular is Lois?

In 2025, Lois ranked #1,670 among girls in the United States, with 124 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 10,505 in 1927. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.