Louise (given name)

Louise and Luise are, respectively, French and German feminine forms of the given name Louis. Louise has been regularly used as a female name in English speaking countries since the middle of the 19th century. It has ranked among the top 100 names given to girls in France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and Wales in recent years. It last ranked among the top 1,000 first names for girls born in the United States in 1991, but remains a more common middle name.

Variants

 * Aloisia: German, Italian, Spanish
 * Aloisie: Czech
 * Alojza: Polish
 * Alojzia: Hungarian, Slovak
 * Alojzija: Slovene
 * Heloísa: Portuguese
 * Labhaoise: Irish
 * Liisa: Finnish, Estonian
 * Liudvika: Lithuanian
 * Lluïsa: Catalan
 * Loes: Dutch
 * Lou: English, French
 * Louella: English
 * Louisa: English
 * Louise: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Norwegian, Swedish
 * Louiza: Greek (Λουίζα), Kabyle
 * Louize: Dutch, French, German, English
 * Lova: Swedish
 * Loviisa: Finnish
 * Loviise: Estonian
 * Lovisa: Swedish
 * Lovise: Danish, Norwegian
 * Lu: English
 * Luana: English, Portuguese
 * Luann: English
 * Luanne: English
 * Ludovica: Italian, Latin
 * Ludwika: Polish
 * Luella: English
 * Luigia: Italian
 * Luigina: Italian
 * Luisa: Italian, Spanish, Estonian
 * Luísa: Portuguese
 * Luise: German, Estonian
 * Luisella: Italian
 * Luīz: Portuguese, English
 * Luiza: Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian (Луиза), Albanian
 * Luīze: Latvian
 * Lujza: Hungarian, Slovak
 * Lula: English
 * Lulu: English, German
 * Luyiza: Ukrainian (Луїза)
 * Ruiha: Māori

Arts

 * Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856–1913), American architect
 * Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), French sculptor
 * Louise Cotnoir (born 1948), Canadian writer
 * Louise Murray (1854–1931), American local historian and museum director
 * Louise Nevelson (1899–1988), American sculptor
 * Louise Robert (born 1941), Canadian painter
 * Louise Schatz (1916–1997), Canadian-born Israeli artist and designer
 * Louise Cooper Spindle (1885–1968), American composer

Entertainment

 * Louise Abuel (born 2003), Filipino teen actor
 * Louise Beavers (1902–1962), African-American film and television actress
 * Louise Bourgoin (born 1981), French actress
 * Louise Brealey (born 1979), English actress
 * Louise Brooks (1906–1985), American silent film actress
 * Louise delos Reyes (born 1992), Filipino actress
 * Louise Fletcher (1934–2022), American actress
 * Louise Gold (born 1956), British Muppet performer
 * Luise Gruber (born 1982), Austrian blues singer-songwriter professionally known as Saint Lu
 * Louise Harman (born 1985), British rapper better known as Lady Sovereign
 * Louise Harrison, British actress
 * Louise Jameson (born 1951), British actress
 * Louise Labèque (born 2003), French actress
 * Louise Lasser (born 1939), American actress
 * Louise Linden (1862–1934), American saxophonist
 * Louise Madison (1911–1970), American tap dancer
 * Louise Michaëli (1830–1875), Swedish opera singer
 * Louise Plowright (1956–2016), British actress
 * Luise Rainer (1910–2014), German-Austrian-American actress
 * Louise Redknapp (born 1974), British singer professionally known simply as Louise

Literature

 * Louise Adler (born 1954), Australian publisher and academic
 * Luise Aston (1814–1871), German author
 * Louise Bogan (1897–1970), American poet
 * Louise Compain (1869–1941), French feminist author
 * Louise Cooper (1952–2009), British writer
 * Louise Erdrich (born 1954), American novelist and poet
 * Louise Flodin (1828–1923), Swedish journalist and publisher
 * Louise E. Francis (1869–1932), American journalist, editor, publisher, and author
 * Luise Gottsched (1713–1762), German poet, playwright, essayist, and translator
 * Louise Granberg (1812–1907), Swedish playwright
 * Louise Hay (1926–2017), American motivational author and publisher
 * Luise Hensel (1798–1876), German religious author and poet
 * Louise Herschman Mannheimer (1845–1920), Czech-American writer, poet, school founder, and inventor
 * Louise Manning Hodgkins (1846–1935), American educator, author, and editor
 * Louise Wareham Leonard (born 1965), American author
 * Louise Markscheffel (1857–1911), American journalist, editor, and critic
 * Louise Chandler Moulton (1835–1908), American poet, story-writer, and critic
 * Louise Rennison (1951–2016), English author and comedian
 * Louise Willis Snead (1868–1958), American writer, lecturer, and artist
 * Luise von Ploennies (1803–1872), German poet
 * Louise Collier Willcox (1865–1929), American author, editor, anthologist, translator, and suffragist

Politics

 * Louise Feltham (1935–2020), Canadian politician
 * Louise Hardy (born 1959), Canadian politician
 * Bi-khim Louise Hsiao (born 1971), 13th Vice President of the Republic of China, also known as Hsiao Bi-khim
 * Louise Thibault (born 1946), Canadian politician

Royalty and nobility

 * Princess Louise (disambiguation), various princesses
 * Lady Louise Windsor (born 2003), granddaughter of Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and only daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
 * Queen Louise (disambiguation), various queens
 * Louise de Brézé (1521–1577), French noble and spouse of Claude, Duke of Aumale
 * Luise von Degenfeld (1634–1677), countess and morganatic spouse of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
 * Duchess Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1722–1780), daughter of Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
 * Louise of Stolberg-Wernigerode (1771–1856), countess and abbess of Drübeck Abbey
 * Louise de Mérode (1819–1868), Belgian noble and spouse of Carlo Emanuele dal Pozzo della Cisterna
 * Archduchess Louise of Austria (1870–1947), daughter of Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Sports

 * Louise Baxter (born 1983), Scottish field hockey defender
 * Louise Brough (1923–2014), American tennis player
 * Louise Carroll (born 1982), Scottish field hockey defender
 * Louise Christie (born 2000), Scottish rhythmic gymnast
 * Louise Cooper, former footballer
 * Luise Krüger (1915–2001), German athlete
 * Louise Lieberman (born 1977), American soccer coach and former player
 * Louise Miller (born 1960), English high jumper
 * Louise Sauvage (born 1973), Australian Paralympic athlete
 * Louise Vanhille (born 1998), French gymnast
 * Aristelle Luise Yog-Atouth (born 1994), Gabonese football player

Other people

 * Louise Arbour (born 1947), Canadian lawyer and diplomat
 * Louise Archer (1893–1948), American teacher and activist
 * Louise Brown (born 1978), first human to be born after in vitro fertilisation, in the UK
 * Louise Charron (born 1951), Canadian lawyer
 * Louise L. Chase (1840–1906), American social reformer
 * Louise Cooper, British financial analyst
 * Louise de Marillac (1591–1660), French co-founder of the Daughters of Charity and Roman Catholic saint
 * Louise Filion (born 1945), Canadian professor of biogeography
 * Luise Hercus (1926–2018), German-born Australian linguist
 * Louise Jensen (died 1994), Danish murder victim
 * Louise Jordan (1908–1966), American petroleum geologist
 * Louise Kessenich-Grafemus (1786–1852), Prussian officer
 * Louise M. Lawson (1855–1951), American temperance activist
 * Louise Macdonald, national director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland
 * Louise O'Sullivan (born 1973), Irish telecommunications executive
 * Louise C. Purington (1844-1916), American physician and temperance movement leader
 * Louise Ravelli (born 1963), Australian linguist
 * Louise Signal, New Zealand professor of public health
 * Louise Reed Stowell (1850–1932), American scientist and author
 * Louise van den Plas (1877–1968), Belgian suffragist
 * Louise Adelaide Wolf (1898–1962), American mathematician and university professor

Fictional characters

 * Lighthouse Louise, a female snail from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Lighthouse Louie". She used to be named Louie, but when she revealed that she has newborn baby snails, she became Louise.
 * Louise, a character in the manga and anime series Attack on Titan
 * Louise the Lady of Violets, wife of the sage Lord Pent and a character in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
 * Louise Belcher, one of the main characters in animated sitcom Bob's Burgers
 * Louise Brooks, one of the main characters in the BBC sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
 * Louise Darling, a friend of Ruby with brown fur in Max & Ruby
 * Louise Grimsley, long-running character in the crime/mystery serial The Edge of Night
 * Louise Halevy, supporting character from the Gundam 00 franchise
 * Louise "Weezie" Jefferson, neighbor of Archie Bunker in All in the Family and a main character in the spin-off The Jeffersons
 * Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, the female protagonist in the light novel, anime, and manga series Zero no Tsukaima
 * Louise Maigret (née Leonard), wife of Inspector Jules Maigret, a fictional detective in novels by Georges Simenon
 * Louise Mallard, main character from "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
 * Louise "Lulu" Moppet, the main character of Little Lulu comics
 * Louise Sidell, the title character's closest friend in the Penny Parker books