How popular is the baby name Louis in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Louis.

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Popularity of the baby name Louis


Posts that mention the name Louis

Baby name “safe list”: Amelia, Calvin, Grace, Preston, Rebecca, Wesley

Not sure what to name your baby?

Maybe you should go with a classic. The following names have been popular in the U.S. since at least 1880 (when data on baby names was first collected). None of the male names have ever been out of the top 400, and none of the female names have ever been out of the top 500.

So, if you’re stumped, simply close your eyes and point. Just remember to veer to the left if you’re having a boy, to the right if you’re having a girl…

Aaron
Albert
Alex
Alexander
Allen
Andrew
Andy
Anthony
Antonio
Arthur
Benjamin
Calvin
Charles
Christopher
Clayton
Curtis
Daniel
David
Dennis
Donald
Edgar
Edward
Edwin
Felix
Frank
George		Grant
Henry
Isaac
Jack
Jacob
James
Jay
Jerry
Jesse
Joe
Joel
John
Jose
Joseph
Juan
Julian
Kenneth
Louis
Manuel
Marcus
Mark
Martin
Marvin
Matthew
Michael		Nathan
Nathaniel
Nicholas
Oscar
Patrick
Paul
Peter
Philip
Phillip
Preston
Raymond
Richard
Robert
Ruben
Samuel
Stephen
Theodore
Thomas
Timothy
Tony
Victor
Vincent
Walter
Wesley
William		Alice
Amanda
Amelia
Amy
Anna
Anne
Annie
Caroline
Catherine
Cecilia
Charlotte
Christina
Christine
Claudia
Cynthia
Elizabeth
Emily
Emma
Esther
Eva
Evelyn
Grace
Helen
Jane
Josephine
Julia
Katherine		Kathleen
Kathryn
Katie
Laura
Leah
Lillian
Linda
Lydia
Margaret
Maria
Mary
Miriam
Molly
Nancy
Naomi
Nina
Priscilla
Rachel
Rebecca
Rose
Rosa
Ruby
Ruth
Sara
Sarah
Veronica

Honorable Mentions: Douglas, Eddie, Ivan, Lawrence, Mitchell and Russell were each out of the top 400 only once, and Nora was out of the top 500 only once.

Baby girl named after 25 heavyweight boxers

Boxers Primo Carnera and Max Baer with actress Myrna Loy (circa 1932)
Boxers Primo Carnera and Max Baer

To the kids at school, she’ll be Autumn Brown.

But her full name is Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

Autumn’s middle names are the surnames of 25 world heavyweight boxing champions, beginning with John L. Sullivan and ending with George Foreman.

Why does Autumn — who was born about 6 weeks ago in Wolverhampton, England — have these 25 middle names?

All 25 were passed down from her mother, Maria.

So how did Maria come to have these names?

Maria was born in 1974 to boxing-obsessed parents who decided to name her after “every gloved heavyweight boxing champion” up to that point.

“When I was young I couldn’t ever remember my name. It took me to the age of 10 to memorize it all,” Maria said.

Maria’s two siblings have similarly unwieldy names. Her sister Becky (whose middles were inspired by British heavyweight boxers) has 34 given names, and her brother Brian (whose middles were inspired by bare-knuckle boxers) has 42 given names.

Update, Mar. 2025: I just learned that Autumn has a younger sister named Willow (born in October of 2008) who has the same 25 middle names!

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Max Baer, Myrna Loy, Primo Carnera 1932 (public domain)

[Latest update: Mar. 2025]

Where did the baby name Taggart come from in 1964?

Part of a poster for the movie "Taggart" (1964)
Poster for “Taggart“

The name Taggart popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: 5 baby boys named Taggart [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

Why?

I’d say it was the movie Taggart, which was a Western released in late 1964.

The main character, Kent Taggart, spent much of the film being pursued by a ruthless killer through Apache country (in Arizona). He was played by actor Tony Young, who had played Cord in Gunslinger several years earlier.

The movie Taggart was based on the 1959 book of the same name by Louis L’Amour. (The TV show Hondo was also based on L’Amour’s writing.)

The Celtic surname Taggart can be traced back to a Gaelic phrase meaning “son of the priest.” (The word for “priest” was sagart.)

What are your thoughts on the name Taggart?

Sources:

  • Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • Taggart (1964) – TCM.com
  • SSA

Image: Movie poster for Taggart

Where did the baby name Shalako come from in 1970?

Movie poster for "Shalako" (1968)
“Shalako” poster

The unusual name Shalako was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1970:

  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted
  • 1970: 6 baby boys named Shalako [debut]
  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The movie Shalako, released toward the end of 1968. It was a Western starring Sean Connery as main character Moses Zebulon “Shalako” Carlin, a tracker and former cavalry officer. (Shalako’s love interest was played by Brigitte Bardot.)

In the story, set in New Mexico in 1880, Shalako had to rescue a group of European aristocrats that had decided to go hunting on reservation land and, as a result, gotten in trouble with the local Apaches.

The film was based on a 1962 novel by Louis L’Amour. Here’s how Shalako explained his unusual name in the book:

Name of the Zuni rain god. Seemed like every time I showed up in their country it rained, so they called me that for a joke.

For a time during the 1960s, L’Amour and others tried to build a working Old West town called Shalako in southwestern Colorado, but the town never materialized.

What are your thoughts on Shalako as a baby name?

Sources: Shalako by Louis L’Amour – Internet Archive, Shalako (1968) – TCM.com, SSA

Image: Movie poster for Shalako