Louis
Meaning of Louis
Louis—pronounced LOO-ee in English and lwi in the mellifluous French—traces his lineage to the ancient Frankish “Hludwig,” a tapestry of hlud (fame) and wig (warrior), so that, at his core, he bears the laurel of the “renowned warrior.” Through the centuries he has marched like a standard unfurled, from the marble courts of Emperor Charlemagne’s heirs to the sun-drenched reign of Louis XIV, each royal bearer engraving his fleur-de-lis upon the shield of history. He resurfaces in softer garb when Louis IX, canonized as Saint Louis, carries charity like a torch before the poor, and again when Louis Pasteur bends over his microscopes, wresting life from illness with the quiet fervor of a modern alchemist. Across the Atlantic, a trumpet lifts his syllables skyward as Louis Armstrong coaxes joy from brass, while riverboats glide past the city that honors the saint-king’s name, stitching the Mississippi to memory. Thus Louis stands today—warm, gallant, and unhurried—inviting parents to gift their son a name that rings with gloria antiqua, yet feels as immediate as a heartbeat in a newborn chest.
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as LOO-ee (/luːi/)
French
- Pronunced as loo-EE (/lwi/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
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Notable People Named Louis
| Louis XIV, the Sun King, ruled France from 1643 to 1715 in the longest reign in history, embodying absolutism and transforming Versailles while expanding French power and shaping Baroque art and architecture. |
| Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist whose breakthroughs in vaccination, fermentation, and pasteurization helped found modern bacteriology and saved millions of lives. |
| Louis Daniel Armstrong, an American trumpeter and vocalist known as Satchmo, was a seminal jazz figure whose five decades of work earned Grammys and multiple hall of fame honors. |
| Louis XVI was the last king of France, ruling from 1774 until the monarchy was abolished in 1792, and was married to Marie Antoinette. |
| Louis Tomlinson is an English singer and songwriter from Doncaster who rose to fame on The X Factor in 2010 as a member of One Direction which became one of the best selling boy bands. |
| Louis Riel was a Canadian politician and Metis leader who founded Manitoba and led two resistance movements to defend Metis rights as Canada expanded westward. |
| Louis St. Laurent - Louis Stephen St. Laurent was the 12th prime minister of Canada from 1948 to 1957. |
| Louis Henry Sullivan, a pioneering Chicago School architect and mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, helped define the skyscraper age with his credo form follows function. |
| Louis L'Amour was a bestselling American author of Western frontier tales, including Hondo and the Sackett series, many filmed, with over 100 books still in print. |
| Louis Isadore Kahn was an Estonian born American architect based in Philadelphia who founded his own practice in 1935 and later taught at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. |
| Louis Silvie Zamperini, an American WWII veteran, Olympic distance runner, and Christian evangelist, finished 8th with a lap record in the 5000 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. |
| Louis Braille was a French educator who invented the braille reading system for the visually impaired still used worldwide today. |
| Louis Theroux is a British American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author, winner of three BAFTA Television Awards and a Royal Television Society award. |
| Louis Faidherbe - Louis Leon Cesar Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator who, as governor of Senegal, founded the Senegalese Tirailleurs. |
| Louis le Brocquy was an Irish painter born in Dublin whose career spanned seventy years, winning a Venice Biennale prize for A Family before moving to the French Midi after marrying fellow painter Anne Madden. |
