Ludmila
Slavic feminine name meaning "woman of great love".
Name Census estimates that about 182 living Americans carry the first name Ludmila. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ludmila today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ludmila births was 1916 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ludmila. 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 Ludmila with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
182
~ 1 in 1,883,266 Americans
Peak year
1916
14 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,942
Tracked since 1904
Census
Ludmila in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,708 people with the first name Ludmila, which placed it at #4,849 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
#4,849
National first-name rank
People counted
3.7K
3,708 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ludmila
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ludmila is White at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (1.0%). 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 Ludmila 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 Ludmila at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.0% · 3,373
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 230
- Black or African American1.0% · 37
- Two or more races0.9% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Ludmila: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ludmila from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 64 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ludmila remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ludmila 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 Ludmila during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ludmila
The name Ludmila has its origins in the Slavic languages and can be traced back to the 9th century AD. It is derived from the Old Slavic words "ludъ" meaning "people" and "milъ" meaning "dear" or "beloved", suggesting the meaning "beloved by the people".
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Ludmila is found in the medieval Czech legend of Saint Ludmila, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslaus, the patron saint of Bohemia. According to the legend, Ludmila was martyred around 921 AD for her Christian faith by her pagan daughter-in-law.
The name gained popularity in the Slavic regions of Eastern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages, with several notable historical figures bearing the name. Ludmila Przhevalskaya (1858-1924) was a Russian explorer who accompanied her husband, Nikolai Przhevalsky, on several expeditions to Central Asia.
Another prominent figure was Ludmila Pavlichenko (1916-1974), a Soviet sniper during World War II who was credited with 309 confirmed kills, making her one of the deadliest female snipers in history. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for her bravery and skill.
In the realm of literature, Ludmila Petrushevskaya (born 1938) is a renowned Russian writer and playwright, known for her short stories and plays that explore the lives of ordinary Russians during the Soviet era.
Moving into more recent times, Ludmila Tchérina (1924-2004) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of Russian descent, who was a principal dancer with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and later became the artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Ludmila, a name that continues to be popular in Slavic cultures and has gained recognition worldwide.
People
Ludmila + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ludmila 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
Ludmila: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ludmila?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 182 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ludmila 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 1,883,266 US residents.
Is Ludmila a common name?
We classify Ludmila as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 282 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ludmila most popular?
The single biggest year for Ludmila was 1916, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ludmila is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ludmila in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,708 people with the name Ludmila, or 1.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,849 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 Ludmila 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 Ludmila?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ludmila appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,709 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Ludmila?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ludmila is White at 91.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (1.0%). 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 Ludmila most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ludmila in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.0% (3,373 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 Ludmila in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ludmila a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ludmila 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 Ludmila still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ludmila 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 Ludmila 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 Ludmila 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.