Lue vs Luella
American parents have registered 32,621 Luellas since 1880, against 7,169 Lues. Luella is still ahead, with 349 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Lue Luella
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
Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Luella for 138 years and Lue for 8 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.
Side by side
| Lue | Luella | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 7,169 | 32,621 |
| Most in one year | 176 | 949 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 349 |
| Estimated living today | 1,900 | 7,700 |
| Median age today | 74 | 20 |
| Peak year | 1919 | 1918 |
| Best rank | 543rd girls | 202nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 778th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 6,474 / 695 | 32,605 / 16 |
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 Lues alive today are over 74; half the Luellas are over 20. That is 54 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Lue Mississippi (18.0×), Alabama (8.1×), South Carolina (7.2×)
- Luella North Dakota (10.3×), South Dakota (6.6×), Minnesota (4.2×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Lue and Luella.