Luiz
A masculine name of German origin meaning "renowned warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 3,036 living Americans carry the first name Luiz. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Luiz today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Luiz births was 2000 (112 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Luiz. 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 Luiz with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 112,897 Americans
Peak year
2000
112 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,156
Tracked since 1915
Census
Luiz in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,853 people with the first name Luiz, which placed it at #3,530 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
#3,530
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,853 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
55.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Luiz
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luiz is Hispanic at 55.2%. The next largest groups are White (38.3%) and Black (3.1%). 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 Luiz 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 Luiz at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino55.2% · 3,233
- White38.3% · 2,241
- Black or African American3.1% · 184
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 102
- Two or more races1.4% · 81
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 12
Popularity
Luiz: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Luiz from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 858 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Luiz 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 Luiz during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Luiz' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Luiz, while Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 114 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Luiz
The name Luiz is derived from the Old German name Chlodovech, which was later Latinized to Ludovicus and then shortened to Luis in Spanish and Portuguese. It is a Germanic name that means "famous warrior" or "renowned fighter."
The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 5th century AD, when it was borne by Clovis I, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty and the first King of the Franks. The name gained popularity throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in Spain and Portugal, where it took on the forms Luis and Luiz, respectively.
One of the earliest and most notable figures with the name Luiz was Luiz de Camões, a Portuguese poet who lived from 1524 to 1580. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and is best known for his epic poem "Os Lusíadas," which celebrates the Age of Discovery and the Portuguese maritime voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Another prominent Luiz was Luiz Vaz de Camões, a Portuguese explorer who lived from 1469 to 1528. He was the first European to discover the Moluccas, also known as the Spice Islands, and played a significant role in the establishment of Portugal's maritime empire in Asia.
In the realm of religion, Saint Louis IX, King of France (1214-1270), was a notable figure who bore the name Luiz. He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1297 and is renowned for his piety, justice, and patronage of the arts and architecture.
Luiz de Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and theologian who developed the theory of middle knowledge, which aimed to reconcile divine sovereignty and human free will. His work had a profound impact on Catholic theology and philosophy.
Luiz de Sousa (1555-1632) was a Portuguese dramatist and poet who played a significant role in the development of the Portuguese theater during the Renaissance period. His most famous work is the tragicomedy "A Vida é Sonho" (Life is a Dream).
These are just a few examples of notable historical figures who bore the name Luiz, demonstrating its rich cultural and linguistic heritage spanning various fields, including literature, exploration, religion, and philosophy.
People
Luiz + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Luiz 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
Luiz: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Luiz?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,036 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Luiz 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 112,897 US residents.
Is Luiz a common name?
We classify Luiz as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,321 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Luiz most popular?
The single biggest year for Luiz was 2000, when 112 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Luiz is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Luiz in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,853 people with the name Luiz, or 1.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,530 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 Luiz 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 Luiz?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Luiz leans strongly male. 5,733 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 122 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Luiz?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Luiz is Hispanic at 55.2%. The next largest groups are White (38.3%) and Black (3.1%). 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 Luiz most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Luiz in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.2% (3,233 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 Luiz in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Luiz a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Luiz 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 Luiz still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Luiz 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 Luiz 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 Luiz as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.