Lucilla
A feminine diminutive form of Lucia, meaning "light" or "bringer of light".
Name Census estimates that about 518 living Americans carry the first name Lucilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lucilla today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lucilla births was 1955 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lucilla. 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 Lucilla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
518
~ 1 in 661,688 Americans
Peak year
1955
19 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,277
Tracked since 1898
Census
Lucilla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 899 people with the first name Lucilla, which placed it at #13,432 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
#13,432
National first-name rank
People counted
899
899 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lucilla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucilla is Hispanic at 51.4%. The next largest groups are White (26.5%) and Black (10.2%). 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 Lucilla 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 Lucilla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino51.4% · 462
- White26.5% · 238
- Black or African American10.2% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.7% · 78
- Two or more races2.2% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 9
Popularity
Lucilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lucilla from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 132 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Lucilla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lucilla 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 Lucilla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lucillas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lucilla
The name Lucilla has its origins in the Latin language. It is the feminine form of the Roman family name Lucillus, which is a diminutive of the Roman name Lucius. Lucius is derived from the Latin word "lux," meaning light or brightness.
In ancient Roman culture, the name Lucilla was relatively common among women from noble families. It first appeared in historical records around the 1st century AD. One of the earliest notable bearers of the name was Lucilla, the daughter of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina the Younger. She lived from 148 to 182 AD.
Another prominent Lucilla in Roman history was the wife of the Roman Emperor Lucius Verus, who ruled from 161 to 169 AD. This Lucilla was known for her involvement in political intrigues and her alleged role in a failed conspiracy against her brother, the Emperor Commodus.
During the Byzantine Empire, the name Lucilla continued to be used, although less frequently than in earlier Roman times. One example is Lucilla of Byzantium, who lived in the 5th century AD and was the wife of the Eastern Roman Emperor Anthemius.
In the Middle Ages, the name Lucilla fell out of widespread use but was occasionally revived in certain regions of Europe. For instance, there was a Lucilla of Merania, a 13th-century German noblewoman who was the wife of King Philip II of France.
As the Renaissance period began, the name Lucilla experienced a modest resurgence in popularity, particularly in Italy. One notable bearer from this era was Lucilla Galerana Baglioni, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 16th century and was known for her patronage of the arts and her involvement in the political affairs of Perugia.
In more recent times, the name Lucilla has remained relatively uncommon in most parts of the world, though it has occasionally been used as a feminine form of the male name Lucian or Lucio. However, its historical significance and connection to ancient Roman culture have ensured that the name has endured, albeit in a limited capacity.
People
Lucilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lucilla 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
Lucilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lucilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 518 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lucilla 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 661,688 US residents.
Is Lucilla a common name?
We classify Lucilla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 946 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lucilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Lucilla was 1955, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lucilla is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lucilla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 899 people with the name Lucilla, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,432 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 Lucilla 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 Lucilla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lucilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 893 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Lucilla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lucilla is Hispanic at 51.4%. The next largest groups are White (26.5%) and Black (10.2%). 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 Lucilla most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Lucilla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (462 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 Lucilla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lucilla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lucilla 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 Lucilla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lucilla 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 Lucilla 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 have Lucilla as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.