Girl · Ancient Greek
Lois
Say it: LOH-is
Meaning
Uncertain. Possibly from a Greek word meaning 'better, more desirable', but the origin is not known.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Used by Puritans and popular in the United States in the 1920s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1920s
In the United States
- 334,962 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1929, about 1 in 108 girls
- 104 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
| French | Loïs |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Loida |
| Portuguese | Lóide |
| German | Lois |
Famous bearers
- Lois, grandmother of Timothy in 2 Timothy
- Lois Lane, Superman's companion
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.