Lois

Girls' name · Early 20th-century perennial

Living in the US: ~109,700 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank: #1,666 among girls
Births in 2025: 124 335,594 since 1880
Typical age: 77 years, median

Lois popularity over time

Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

More children were named Lois in 1927 than in any other year — 10,587 of them. It is present from 1880, the first year of the record. It has held a top-100 place in 52 separate years.

The 2025 position is #1,666, on 124 births. Year on year the rank improved by 15.

Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Lois?

Roughly 109,700 Loiss are alive in the US right now. That is out of 335,594 recorded births since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Lois?

Median age among living Loiss: 77. The 1940s produced the largest surviving cohort. By the site’s era rules that makes Lois a early 20th-century perennial name.

Your Lois

Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Lois in England and Wales

ONS recorded 87 births named Lois in 2025, ranking it #460. That is 52% lower than five years earlier.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Lois comes from

From Ancient Greek Λωΐς, of obscure meaning. Unrelated to Louise or Louisa.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Lois

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
	Known for	Years	Editions
Lois McMaster Bujold	American novelist	1949	45
Lois Maxwell	Canadian actress	1927–2007	39
Lois Lowry	American writer	1937	37
Lois Weber	American actor/film director	1879–1939	31
Lois Chiles	American actress and model	1947	30
Lois Smith	American actress	1930	29
Lois Abbingh	Dutch handball player	1992	24
Lois Nettleton	actress	1927–2008	20