Boy · Old High German
Ludwig
Say it: LOOT-vikh
Meaning
From Frankish Hludowig: hlud 'fame, loud' and wig 'battle'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
The German form of the Frankish royal name, borne by Bavarian kings and still in use.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1890s
In the United States
- 2,642 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1893, about 1 in 7,500 boys
- 8 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Ludewig, Lutz
| English | Louis |
|---|---|
| French | Louis |
| Italian | Ludovico |
| Spanish | Luis |
| Dutch | Lodewijk |
| Polish | Ludwik |
| Swedish | Ludvig |
Famous bearers
- Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
- Ludwig II, king of Bavaria
- Louis the Pious, Frankish emperor
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National birth statistics of European countries 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.