The name Lucan first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1977:
- 1979: 21 baby boys named Lucan
- 1978: 41 baby boys named Lucan
- 1977: 16 baby boys named Lucan [debut]
- 1976: unlisted
- 1975: unlisted
The names Lucas and Luke were on the rise at the time, but the influence in this case was pop culture: Lucan, a television series that aired irregularly from mid-1977 to late 1978.
The show starred actor Kevin Brophy as Lucan, who’d been raised by wolves for the first 10 years of his life, then “civilized” in a university lab for the next 10 years. As a young man, he struck out on his own to solve the mystery of his identity.
In the show, the name “Lucan” was pronounced with equal stress on both syllables: loo-kan. Not like Duncan or Deacon, but like the name Lou followed by the verb can (“Lou can…”). The show’s creators likely based the name on the Ancient Greek word for “wolf,” which has been transliterated various ways (e.g., lukos, lykos, lukon, lykon).
Do you like the name Lucan? (Do you like it more or less than Lucas and Luke?)
Source: Strong’s Greek: 3074. lukos — a wolf