Lucia

71,628 people in America carry this name — ranked #716 of 923.

Carried mostly by Generation Alpha.

Say it LOO shuh

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

L UW1 SH AH0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 71,628 2020 Census
  • Rank #716 Familiar
  • Per 100,000 23.7 about 1 in 4,627 people

The meaning and origin of Lucia

Latin in origin, reading literally as “light”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Lucia through the years

46,998 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2019, with 1,813 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Lucia

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Lucia Lisa — same opening
  • Lucia Ashley — runs together
  • Lucia Amanda — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Lucia is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Lucia used for boys or for girls?

0.3% men
71,433 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where the name Lucia is most common in the US

In California the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • California ×1.8
  • Arizona ×1.7
  • New Mexico ×1.5
  • Florida ×1.5
  • Oregon ×1.5

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names built the same way as Lucia

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

How to spell Lucia

Lucia is how 15% of them spell it — 486,657 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it First-Year Costs

Open First-Year Costs on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Latin origin