Humanverse

Lou vs Lourine

American parents have registered 38,198 Lous since 1880, against 320 Lourines. Lou is still ahead, with 146 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lou against Lourine, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lou Lourine

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lou has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1914, when Lou had 265 and Lourine had 18.

Side by side

  Lou Lourine
Total US births 38,198320
Most in one year 1,54720
Babies in 2025 146under 5
Estimated living today 18,00060
Median age today 6983
Peak year 19541921
Best rank 204th girls1,988th girls
Rank in 2025 2,645thunranked
First recorded 18801911
Girls / boys 34,109 / 4,089320 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lourines alive today are over 83; half the Lous are over 69. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lou and Lourine.