Loie

LOW-ee
French
"understanding"

Loie Origin and Meaning

The name Loie is a girl's name meaning "understanding".

Unique and unusual as a nickname and a stand-alone name, Loie is a vintage choice worth reviving. It is traditionally used as a short form of Lois and Louise but would work as a nickname for any Lo- starting name, or even names such as Laura, Eloise, and Charlotte.

The best-known bearer of this name was Loie Fuller, a trailblazer in modern dance and stage lighting. She was an American, born in the Chicago suburbs, and christened Mary Louise Fuller. Fuller's original stage name was Louie, but she changed it to Loïe upon moving to Paris. In French, l'ouïe refers to a sense of hearing, and Loïe was a pun on that, also connected to the Medieval French word l'oïe, meaning "understanding."