Love
Representing strong affection, attachment, and fondness of someone or something.
Name Census estimates that about 4,407 living Americans carry the first name Love. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Love today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Love births was 2022 (418 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Love. 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 Love with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Love is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 77,775 Americans
Peak year
2022
418 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#846
Tracked since 1880
Census
Love in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,239 people with the first name Love, which placed it at #5,336 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
#5,336
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,239 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Love
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Love is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Hispanic (13.6%). 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 Love 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 Love at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.8% · 1,744
- White17.2% · 558
- Hispanic or Latino13.6% · 442
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.7% · 281
- Two or more races5.3% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 42
Gender
Gender distribution for Love
Love leans heavily female at 82.4% of total registrations, but 967 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Love as a male name
- Ranked #4,262 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (32 births)
Love as a female name
- Ranked #846 in 2024
- 319 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (386 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Love leans strongly female. 2,650 people counted with this name were female (81.6%), compared with 597 male bearers (18.4%).
Popularity
Love: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Love from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,705 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Love 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 Love during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Loves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Love, while Utah, Oregon, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 75 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Love
The name Love is believed to have originated from the Old English word "lufu," which means affection or strong feelings of attachment. This name gained popularity during the Middle Ages in England, particularly among the Puritans, who embraced virtue names for their children.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Love is found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript commissioned in 1086 by William the Conqueror, which documented landowners in England. The name Love appeared as a surname in this historical record, suggesting its existence as a given name at the time.
In the 16th century, the name Love gained widespread recognition due to its association with the concept of courtly love, a tradition that celebrated romantic love and chivalry. Poets and writers during this period, such as Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare, often used the name Love as a symbolic representation of affection and devotion in their works.
One of the earliest known individuals with the given name Love was Love Brewster, born in England in 1611. She was a member of the Puritan Brewster family and immigrated to the Plymouth Colony in America in 1623. Another notable figure was Love Westover, a 17th-century Puritan minister born in England in 1635.
In the 18th century, the name Love gained popularity among the Quakers, who valued simplicity and virtue. One notable Quaker with this name was Love Bonville, born in England in 1743, who became a prominent minister and advocate for abolition and women's rights.
During the 19th century, the name Love experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly in the United States. One famous bearer of this name was Love Jones, born in 1848, a former slave who became a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist in the state of Mississippi.
Another notable individual was Love Maria Woodhouse, born in England in 1857, who was a prominent suffragette and campaigner for women's rights. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union and participated in protests and demonstrations for the cause of women's suffrage.
Throughout history, the name Love has been a symbol of affection, devotion, and virtue, reflecting the values and beliefs of various cultures and communities. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to the universal desire for love and the aspirations it represents.
People
Love + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Love 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
Love: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Love?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,407 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Love 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 77,775 US residents.
Is Love a common name?
We classify Love as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,494 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Love most popular?
The single biggest year for Love was 2022, when 418 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Love is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Love in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,239 people with the name Love, or 1.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,336 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 Love 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 Love?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Love leans strongly female. 2,650 people counted with this name were female (81.6%), compared with 597 male bearers (18.4%). 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 Love?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Love is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are White (17.2%) and Hispanic (13.6%). 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 Love most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Love in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.8% (1,744 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 Love in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Love a female name?
Yes, 82.4% of people registered as Love in the SSA data are female. 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 Love still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Love 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 Love 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 people share the name Love?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.