Origin and popularity of the name LOUIS

Origin

Louis : 1: French Walloon West Indian (mainly Haiti) and German: from the French personal name Louis derived from an ancient Germanic name (the name of the founder of the Frankish dynasty) composed of the elements hlod ‘fame’ + wīg ‘war’. This is recorded in Latin chronicles as Ludovicus (see Ludwig) and Chlodovechus which became Old French Clovis Louis a name borne by many French kings. Louis IX (1214–70) a King of France from 1226–70 is revered as a Catholic and Anglican saint; the cities of St. Louis in MO St. Louis in MI San Luis in AR and San Luis in CO are among the many places called after thim. This surname is by far most common in Haiti. Compare Lewis.2: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 雷(see Lei 1) and 盧 (see Lu 1).

Lewis : 1: English: from the Middle English Old French personal name Lewis Leweis Lowis from ancient Germanic (originally West Frankish) Hludwig (itself from hlōd- ‘fame famous’ + wīg- ‘battle’). This was Latinized as Ludovicus and Chlodovisus which were gallicized as Clovis or Clouis French Louis. The name may also appear as Lawis Laweys Lawes by unrounding of the vowel of Lowis on the analogy of the variation between Low and Law as pet forms of Middle English Lourence alias Laurence. This surname is also very common among African Americans. See Laws 2 and compare Lawrence.2: Welsh: adopted for the Welsh personal name Llywelyn (see Llewellyn).3: Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lughaidh ‘son of Lughaidh’. This is one of the most common Old Irish personal names. It is derived from Lugh ‘brightness’ which was the name of a Celtic god.4: Americanized form of French Louis.5: Americanized form of various like-sounding Jewish surnames.6: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 廖 (see Liao) 羅 (see Luo 1) 劉 (see Liu 1).

Saint Louis : directly or indirectly from French Saint Louis i.e. the crusading king Louis IX or a 14th-century bishop of Toulouse; or more likely a topographical name from a place named after one of these.

San Luis : Spanish (also Sanluis): habitational name from any of numerous places so named for a local church or shrine dedicated to Saint Louis (Spanish San Luis); see Louis.

St. Louis : 1: French (Saint-Louis): habitational name from any of several places in various parts of France named Saint-Louis (from the dedication of their churches to Saint Louis) or a nickname with the prefix Saint as an (ironic) attachment to the personal name or surname Louis; this was one of the most common nicknames (noms de guerre) among French soldiers (see Lafleur). This surname is is virtually non-existing in France.2: Haitian (also Saint-Louis): from Saint-Louis a nickname ornamental name or personal name composed of the French prefix Saint and the personal name Louis or perhaps a habitational name from a place in Haiti called Saint-Louis (compare 1 above). Compare Saintlouis.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 641,050 individuals with the name LOUIS on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name LOUIS