Louise

English

Etymology

From French Louise, the feminine form of Louis.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːz

Proper noun

Louise

1. A female given name.
   • 1890 Arthur Weir, John Arthur Lockhart: The Romance of Sir Richard. Published by William Drysdale&Co. page 83:

     Louise, thy stately name sounds in my ear / Like a sea wave, that gathering, hill on hill, / Upon the blue horizon, smooth and still, / Sweeps to the shore

   • 1957 Ed McBain, The Con Man, Armchair Detective Library (1991), ISBN 0922890935, page 47:

     That's what I baptized her. Mary Louise. Everybody else called her just plain Mary, but that wasn't the way I intended it. I intended it Mary Louise. That's a pretty name, isn't it? Mary Louise. Mary is too...plain?

   • 1991 Emily Ellison, The Picture Makers, G.K.Hall, ISBN 0816151660, page 111:

     I've always thought I was too large for a soft, musical name like Louise, too untidy.

Usage notes

Used in English since the seventeenth century, more in the U.K. than in the U.S.A. A common middle name today.

Related terms

• Lou, Louisa, Lula, Lulu

Translations

feminine form of Louis

• Catalan: Lluïsa (ca)
• Danish: Louise (da)
• Finnish: Loviisa (fi)
• French: Louise (fr)
• German: Luise (de)
• Irish: Laoise
• Italian: Luisa (it)

• Jèrriais: Louiseu f
• Latvian: Lavīze (lv) f, Luīze (lv) f
• Norwegian: Lovise (no)
• Russian: Луиза (ru) (Luíza) f, Луиз (ru) (Luíz) f (indeclinable)
• Spanish: Luisa (es)
• Swedish: Lovisa (sv), Louise (sv) c

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Danish

Etymology

From French Louise.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /luiːsə/, [luˈiːsə]

Proper noun

Louise

1. A female given name.

Related terms

• Lovise

References

• [1] Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 51 558 females with the given name Louise have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1980s. Accessed on 19 May, 2011.

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /lwiz/

Proper noun

Louise f

1. A female given name, feminine form of Louis.

Related terms

• Marie-Louise

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German

Proper noun

Louise

1. A female given name borrowed from French Louise.

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Norwegian

Proper noun

Louise

1. A female given name borrowed from French Louise.

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Swedish

Etymology

From French Louise. First recorded in Sweden in 1698.

Proper noun

Louise

1. A female given name.

Related terms

• Lovisa

References

• Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, ISBN 91-21-10937-0
• [2] Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, ISBN 9119551622:52 540 females with the given name Louise living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 1990s. Accessed on May 19th, 2011.