Lou

Diminutive of Louis or Lewis, French and German

"renowned warrior"

Lou Origin and Meaning

The name Lou is a boy's name of German, French origin meaning "renowned warrior".

Lou, all by itself, is become fashionable for girls, which usually makes a name LESS fashionable for boys. But Lou, like Bill or Jim, is rarely used on its own for boys anyway. (You wouldn't name a boy Frederick Lou the way that girls are named Mary Lou or, in the case of Keri Russell's new baby, Willa Lou.) Long form Louis is getting cool again and, with the Lewis spelling, is the Number 2 name in Scotland.

Lou Rank in US Top 1000

# 949 in the US

Lou Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 857 on Nameberry

Lou Popularity

• 857 Nameberry 2025
• 351 Unisex 2023
• 38 Belgium 2023

20 Names Similar to Lou

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Lou.

• Lou
• Clancy
• Cliff
• Sal
• Laird
• Win
• Morrison
• Park
• Chet
• Kermit
• Whit
• Ludovic
• Camil
• Maxfield
• Morton
• Oswald
• Tessie
• Boris
• Wyn
• Pilot

Famous People Named Lou

• Lou Gehrig American baseball player
• Louis "Lou" Dobbs American journalist
• Lou Diamond Phillips American actor
• Lou Reed American musician
• Lou Macari Scottish footballer
• Lou Costello American actor/comedian of duo Abbot & Costello
• Louis Allen "Lou" Rawls American recording artist, voice actor, songwriter, and record producer

Lou in Pop Culture

• Lou Grant main character on TV's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Lou Grant"
• Lou Peable character in movie "Legally Mad"
• Lou Avery character on TV's "Mad Men"
• Lou Carpenter character on Australian soap "Neighbours"
• Lou policeman on TV's "The Simpsons"
• Lou Todd character on British sitcom "Little Britain"
• Louis "Lou" Vartann character on TV's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation