Dog Names That Start With L

In the Anglophone world, Love is more likely to be perceived as an English word name than the Swedish form of Louis.

A loveday in medieval England was a day when people engaged in a dispute would come together and try to resolve their differences amicably. The name was sometimes given to babies, male or female, who were born on such a day. The etymology of Loveday is English, yet historical use was mainly relegated to Cornwall, and it is considered a traditional Cornish name. However, Loveday is rarely used today, however, when it is, it is typically used for baby girls.

The additional syllable makes Lark a masculine surname name.

Properly spelled Luã, this is a light and bright alternative to mega-popular Luna, with the same celestial meaning. Lua is also an attractive choice for tech-heads, with Lua being a popular programming language.

Less common than other virtue names, Liberty is nonetheless a name with a long American heritage.

The nature boy version of the Scandinavian Leif, which actually means "heir". In the creative-naming Phoenix family, Leaf is the former name of the actor we know as Joaquin.

This first name was once a surname derived from Old English. Used quietly a century ago, the current fashion for two-syllable boy names ending in n makes this one a new hit.

Leviathan was a name given to 76 boys in the USA in 2021. It makes a rather unusual Biblical choice, being the name not of a man or angel, but of a sea monster. In literature and popular culture, the term Leviathan has since come to be used as a synonym for any gargantuan, monstrous creature or object (think of the bag in VEEP).

Laramie was derived from the French word la ramée, meaning "leafy canopy." It was historically a French surname, but today it is a viable first name option for girls or boys. The Wyoming city gives it more of a cowgirl Western than French vibe.

The great African-American Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes put this one on the map; actor Laurence Fishburne adopted it for his now grown son, born in 1987. Despite these popular associations, the name didn't make it into the US Top 1000 until 2013. This name is even less used in England or Wales, where as recently as 2014 no births were registered using this name.

A delicate name with an ancient pedigree, more appealing to some than Lucille. It elaborates on Lucy and even Lucia and feels more distinctive than Lucinda.

Lettice is still occasionally heard in upper-class British families, but we fear it would cause too much salad-green teasing to be considered in the U.S. Calling your little Lettice Lettie could help make the name more user-friendly, or go all the way to the original Letitia.

Letha is taken from Lethe, the mythological River of Oblivion. Letha now sounds as if it's missing a first syllable.

If Lulu and Lula and Lou all work for girls, why not Louie? We're predicting a rise for baby girls in the wake of all the Lou names trending.

Evocative modern unisex choice brought into the spotlight by actress Lake Bell.

Landry is one rising surname name, often after legendary Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry, that is given to boys and girls. But the y ending does give it a feminine sound (as opposed to the more boyish and more popular Landon). Land is a Landry nickname that might work for boys or girls.

Lilo is the name of the spunky little Hawaiian girl character in the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch-- and is also Lindsay Lohan's nickname. Multi-cultural, it can be found in Hawaiian, German and Hebrew nomenclature.

Sweet but sleek, and distinctive, Liesel is an old German nickname-name for Elisabeth. It might have once seemed inextricably tied to to its country of origin, but now, like Elsa, Enzo, Saoirse, Freya, Soren, and Heidi, it leans more towards being international and European chic.

About 100 baby boys were named Lucio in the US last year, a number we expect to increase with the growing popularity of all names in the Lu family. It's a family united by sound, with three main branches.

Levin, known in the U.S. mostly as a surname, is a Top 100 boys' name in Germany. There have been saints with variations of this name, whose meaning relates to love.