Luke

For other uses, see Luke (disambiguation).

Luke
Map of Lucania
Pronunciation	/luːk/
Gender	Male
Origin
Word/Name	Greek
Meaning	"Light"
Other names
Related names	Luc, Luca, Lucas, Lukas

Luke ( /ˈluːk/) is a male given name, and less commonly, a surname.

The name Luke is derived from ancient Greek meaning 'Light'. It also sounds like the Italian word for light, 'Luce'. Some commentaries suggest that the name is drived from the Latin name Lucas, meaning 'man from Luciana, (a region of Italy). However, the earliest known recording of the name is from the Bible which was in existence before the Latin language was prominent. The Gospel of Luke, which was written around AD 70 to 90, and it is from here that the name was first popularised. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, was a physician who lived around AD 30 to 130 (exact years are not known), and he also wrote the Book of Acts in the Bible. Luke is also mentioned by the Apostle Paul in some of the letters Paul wrote to first-century churches.

Luke is the 21st most popular name for new babies in England and Wales, the 43rd most popular name for new babies in the United States, and the 2,105th most common surname in the US, with 15,000 people (0.006%) sharing the surname.

Popularity of name Luke
in England and Wales

2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	1998
25th	21st	17th	13th	15th	14th	13th

Popularity of name Luke in United States

2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993	1992	1991	1990	1989	1988	1987
43rd	41st	41st	46th	46th	50th	59th	67th	75th	78th	75th	82nd	91st	87th	93rd	113th	118th	121st	119th	111th

Variants in other languages

• Afrikaans: Lukas
• Arabic: لوقا‎ (Lūqā)
• Albanian: Luka
• Armenian: Ղուկաս (Ghukas)
• Belarusian: Лука (Luka)
• Breton: Lukaz
• Bulgarian: Лука (Luka)
• Catalan: Lluc, Lluch
• Chinese: 卢克 (Lúkè)
• Czech: Lukáš
• Danish: Lukas
• Dutch: Lucas
• Esperanto: Luko
• Finnish: Luukas
• French: Luc, Lucas
• German: Lukas
• Greek:

  Ancient: Λουκᾶς (Loukas)

  Modern: Λουκάς

• Hakka: Lu-kâ
• Hebrew: לוקה ‎
• Croatian: Luka
• Hungarian: Lukács
• Icelandic: Lúkas
• Irish: Lúcás
• Italian: Luca
• Georgian: ლუკა (Luka)
• Latin: Lucas
• Macedonian: Лука (Luka)
• Maltese: Luqa
• Norwegian: Lukas
• Persian: لوکا
• Piemontese: Luch
• Polish: Łukasz, Łukaszek
• Portuguese: Lucas
• Romanian: Luca
• Russian: Лука (Luka)
• Scottish Gaelic: Lùcas
• Slovak: Lukáš
• Slovene: Luka
• Serbian: Лука (Luka)
• Spanish: Lucas
• Swedish: Lukas
• Thai: ลูคา
• Turkish: Luka
• Ukrainian: Лука (Luka)
• Venetian: Łuca
• Welsh: Lŵc

People known as Luke

• Luke the Evangelist, companion of Paul of Tarsus
• Vietnamese Martyrs, Luke Loan Ba Vu and Luke Thin Viet Pham
• Luke Brookshier (born 1971), American television writer and storyboard artist
• Luke Ford (born 1981), Australian actor
• Luke Gardiner, Irish landowner and politician
• Luke Goss (born 1968), singer and actor
• Luke Kelly (1940–1984), folk singer
• Luke Howard (1772–1864), manufacturing chemist and amateur meteorologist
• Luke Johnson, drummer for Lostprophets
• Luke Perry, American actor
• Luke Ravenstahl (born 1980), mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Luke Short, (1854–1893) cowboy and gunfighter
• Luke Skywalker, protagonist of the original Star Wars trilogy
• Luke Tan, singer and songwriter
• Luke Temple, American pop-folk singer-songwriter
• Luke Watson, rugby player
• Luke Wilson (born 1971), actor
• Luke Young (born 1979), English footballer
• Luther Campbell (born 1960), also known as Luke
• Steve Lukather (born 1957), also known as Luke
• Lucky Luke, a comic book character who is a cowboy
• Cool Hand Luke, a character played by Paul Newman
• Luke Fon Fabre, protagonist in Tales of the Abyss