Loki
Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse word meaning "knot, trickster".
Name Census estimates that about 1,990 living Americans carry the first name Loki. It is a predominantly male name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Loki today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Loki births was 2021 (168 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Loki. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Loki with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Loki is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 88 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Loki is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 172,238 Americans
Peak year
2021
168 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,767
Tracked since 1996
Census
Loki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,342 people with the first name Loki, which placed it at #10,072 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,072
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,342 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Loki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loki is White at 67.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.6%) and Two or More Races (10.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Loki described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Loki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.1% · 900
- Hispanic or Latino13.6% · 182
- Two or more races10.1% · 135
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 62
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 34
- Black or African American2.2% · 29
Gender
Gender distribution for Loki
Loki leans heavily male at 95.6% of total registrations, but 88 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Loki as a male name
- Ranked #1,767 in 2024
- 93 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (156 births)
Loki as a female name
- Ranked #11,765 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2021 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loki leans strongly male. 1,211 people counted with this name were male (90.2%), compared with 132 female bearers (9.8%).
Popularity
Loki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Loki from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,019 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Loki remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Loki by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Loki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lokis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Loki, while Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Loki
The name Loki originates from Old Norse mythology and literature. It is derived from the Old Norse name Loki, which means "knot" or "tangle." The earliest written records of the name date back to the 13th century Icelandic Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, where Loki is depicted as a cunning trickster god.
In Norse mythology, Loki was a mischievous figure who frequently caused trouble for the gods. He was known for his shape-shifting abilities and his cunning tricks. One of the most famous stories about Loki involves him cutting off the hair of the goddess Sif, which led to a series of events that resulted in the creation of various objects, including Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
The first recorded individual with the name Loki was Loki Laufeyjarson, the trickster god himself from Norse mythology. However, there are no historical records of real people bearing this name until much later.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Loki was Loki Halfdanarson (born around 1200), a Norwegian chieftain and landowner. Another notable bearer of the name was Loki Arnfinnsson (1510-1578), a Norwegian farmer and landowner who played a role in the Norwegian Reformation.
In the 19th century, the name Loki gained popularity in Scandinavia and Germany due to the resurgence of interest in Norse mythology and culture. One of the most famous bearers of the name during this time was Loki Schmidt (1919-2010), a German educator and environmentalist who was also the wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
Other notable individuals with the name Loki include Loki Zitrin (born 1947), an American writer and filmmaker, and Loki Crichton (born 1990), an Australian singer-songwriter and musician.
While the name Loki has its roots in Norse mythology, it has gained broader cultural significance and continues to be used as a given name in various parts of the world, particularly in Scandinavian countries and areas with strong Nordic cultural influences.
People
Loki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Loki as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Loki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Loki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,990 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Loki going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 172,238 US residents.
Is Loki a common name?
We classify Loki as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,006 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Loki most popular?
The single biggest year for Loki was 2021, when 168 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Loki is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Loki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,342 people with the name Loki, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,072 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Loki in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Loki?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loki leans strongly male. 1,211 people counted with this name were male (90.2%), compared with 132 female bearers (9.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Loki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loki is White at 67.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.6%) and Two or More Races (10.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Loki most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Loki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.1% (900 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Loki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Loki a male name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Loki in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Loki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Loki in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Loki can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Loki?
See how many people share the name Loki on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.