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Lulu

#3,194 in 2025Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Lulu has been given to 12,709 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #3,194 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1886, with 376 recorded.

Babies named Lulu, 2025

1 in 66,300

Lulu over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Lulu: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Chinese and Arabic

What Lulu means

Lulu has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: “pearl”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

A reduplication of Lu, a clipping of given names with the first syllable of Lu, Lou, such as Lucy, Lucille, Louise, Louisa.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Lulu (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Lulu is used in English and German. Its origins include Chinese and Arabic.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Louisa, Louise, Lucy, Lucille, Pearl and Luise.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Lulu is pronounced /ˈluːluː/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 12,709 girls were recorded with the name Lulu between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 376 in 1886; its best national rank was #76 in 1881.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,807 in 2020 to #3,194 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,913 in 2015 to #3,194 in 2025.

How common is Lulu?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 66,300
50 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 32,100
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,194
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
45,959 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Lulu sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 45,959 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Lulu. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Lulus were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Lulu was born before 1902 — so the typical Lulu is around 123 today.

Median birth year
1902
About 123 years old
Biggest decade
1880s
25.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,793
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1880s — 25.6% of all recorded uses (3,253).

Is Lulu rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+170
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−387
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−281
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.83×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
13.3%
Peak was 1886 (376)
Years since peak
139
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#76
1881

Spellings of Lulu

Lulu is not the most common spelling — Lucy is, with 22.2% against Lulu's 1.2%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Lulu is used

Across 1910–2025, Lulu was most concentrated in Iowa — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 61,204 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Iowa1 in 25,000
  2. 2West Virginia1 in 25,000
  3. 3Kansas1 in 33,333
  4. 4Missouri1 in 33,333
  5. 5New York1 in 33,333
  6. 6Ohio1 in 33,333
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  8. 8California1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Lulu has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Lulu around the world

Where Lulu ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #1,166
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2012–2012
    #665
    in 2012
  • Ireland
    2008–2015
    #896
    in 2015
  • Canada
    2010–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1996–2013
    #328
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Lulu

People whose public names include Lulu, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Lulu in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Lulu. Linked forms have their own page here.

LulaLoulouLuloLu'luLu'lu'

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Lulu by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,194
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 387
Best rank ever
#76
1881
Peak year
1886
376 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
12,709
Count in 2025
50

Names similar to Lulu

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

LulaLuliaLularLullaLulieLulaniLulwaLulahLulamaeLuliLulwahLulLulyLuleyLuluaLulabelleLulyaLulerLulubelleLulabellLulanaLulubell

Names with a curve like Lulu

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Lulu, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MaudMaudeMaymeBessMathildaMabelleAugustaHuldaNelleBelleBellHettie

Sibling names for Lulu

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Lulu

Top names of 1886, Lulu's peak yearThe 1880s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881More old lady namesGirls' names starting with LOccitan Girl Names