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 [ 2 syll. lo-uis, lou-is ] The boy name Louis is pronounced as LUWahS or LUWiy KEY. Louis is used predominantly in the English and French languages, and its origin is Germanic. Two-element name derived from the elements 'hlud' meaning fame, loud ; 'wig' meaning fighter, warrior. Chlodwig (Germanic) and Hludwig (Germanic) are old forms of Louis. Various forms of the name were used by royal and noble families in France and Germany. The name Clovis was borne by Clovis I (466-511), the first king of the Franks; he ended Roman rule over Gaul and founded the Frankish or French monarchy. The name Louis was later borne by eighteen kings of France, including Louis the Pious (778-840), the son of Charlemagne who was both Holy Roman Emperor and King of France. The Normans brought the name into medieval England, where it was Anglicized as Lewis. The French form Louis became more popular with English speakers from the 18th century. The form Ludwig was used in the medieval period by German counts of Württemberg and by kings of Bavaria from the 19th century; it was also borne by the famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). In the early 20th century, the form Clovis saw a brief revival from the popular short stories The Chronicles of Clovis (1911) by the British author Saki. In the Highlands, Ludovic is used as an Anglicized version of the Gaelic Maol Dòmhnaich, meaning 'devotee of the Lord'. The forms Louis and Lewis are used as Anglicized form of Gaelic Laoiseach and Lughaidh. The name Louise (English, French, and German) is the female version of Louis. Louis is a widely used name; it has 41 variants that are used in both English and other languages. Variants of Louis used in English include Aloysius (also Dutch, French, German, and Scandinavian), Clovis (also French and Latinized), Lew (also Russian), Lewes, Lon, Love (also Scandinavian), Ludo, Ludovic, and Ludovick. The short forms Lou and Louie, and the variant spelling Lewis are other English forms. Foreign variants of Louis include Koldo (Basque), Lajos (Hungarian), Lluis (Catalan), Lodewijk (Dutch), Lodovico (Italian), Loic (French), Loïc (French), Lothar (German), Louison (French), Lovis (German), Lude (Czech), Ludek (Czech), Ludewig (German), Ludirk (Finnish), Ludis (Latvian and Russian), Ludko (Czech), Ludovici (Italian), Ludovico (Italian), Ludovicus (Latinized), Ludvig (Scandinavian), Ludvik (Czech and Russian), Ludwig (German), Ludwik (Polish), Luigi (Italian), Luis (Portuguese and Spanish), Luiz (Portuguese), Lutek (Polish), Luthais (Scottish), and Lutz (German). See also the related forms, Jean-Louis (French) and Lughaidh (Irish). Louis is a classic favorite. Today it is still fairly popular as a baby name for boys, though to a lesser extent than it was before. At the peak of its usage in 1914, 0.804% of baby boys were given the name Louis. Its ranking then was #20. The baby name has since markedly declined in popularity, and is currently of occasional use. In 2008, its usage was only 0.042% and its ranking #351, but it was nonetheless the 2nd most popular after Luis (Portuguese and Spanish), out of all boy names in its group. In 2008, its use outnumbered Louis' by 8 times. Louis has predominantly been a boy name, though in the past century it has also been used for girls. In 1932, 94 times as many boys than girls were given the name Louis. Baby names that sound like Louis include Lewi (Hebrew), Lewis (English), Lluis (Catalan), Louie (English), Lajos (Hungarian), Lassi (Finnish), Laya (Russian), Leao (Portuguese), Leão (Portuguese), Leka (Albanian), Leksik (Czech), Lekso (Czech), Leo (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Czech, and Hawaiian), Leos (Czech and Polish), Leszek (Polish), Léo (French), Lico (Spanish), Liko, Lio (Hawaiian), and Lisle (English). Details of famous persons named Louis: KEY: Pronunciation for Louis: L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; UW as in "two (T.UW)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; UW as in "two (T.UW)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"   |
