Luna
LOO-nah
Luna is the Latin word for moon and the name of the Roman goddess of the moon, equivalent to the Greek Selene and worshipped as a divine personification of the lunar cycle in Roman state religion from at least the 6th century BCE.
The Latin “luna” derives from the Proto-Indo-European root “*louksnā-,” from “*leuk-,” meaning light or brightness, making Luna etymologically related to the Latin “lux” (light), “lucere” (to shine), and the English word “luminous.” In Roman religious
practice, Luna was worshipped on the Aventine Hill in Rome, and her association with the monthly cycle made her a goddess of time-keeping, tides, and the rhythms of agriculture, with the moon’s 29-day cycle embedded in the Roman calendar.
What the name Luna means
The adjective “lunar” and the English word “lunacy” - historically attributed to the influence of the full moon on mental states and behavior - both derive from the same root, illustrating the depth of the name’s integration into Western vocabulary.
As a given name, Luna was used in medieval Italy and Iberia within both Jewish and Catholic communities, and it appears in Sephardic naming records from Spain prior to the 1492 expulsion, making it one of the older documented non-biblical female given
names in the Romance world.
Luna Lovegood, a character in J.K.
Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series introduced in “The Order of the Phoenix” (2003) and played by Evanna Lynch in the film adaptations, is among the most culturally prominent fictional bearers of the name in contemporary culture.
The character is depicted as eccentric, open-minded, and fiercely independent, a combination of qualities that many parents found appealing as name associations for daughters.
The Harry Potter series has sold over 600 million copies globally and attracted an audience spanning multiple generations, giving Luna Lovegood’s name a positive fictional archetype recognizable across virtually all English-speaking countries and many
non-English-speaking ones.
In the United States, Luna was outside the top 500 as recently as 2000 but entered the top 100 by 2016, the top 20 by 2020, and the top 10 as of 2022 SSA rankings.
This rise of over 900 positions in approximately 20 years is one of the steepest and most sustained climbs in the recorded history of SSA baby name charts.
The name ranks in the top 10 in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Mexico, and Argentina, giving it exceptional cross-linguistic and cross-cultural reach that few names can match.
Its appeal combines celestial imagery, phonetic simplicity, and multicultural familiarity: 2 syllables with identical pronunciation in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English speaking contexts.
US popularity over time
Numerology and symbolism
Based on Pythagorean numerology — a traditional system linking name letters to numbers. Presented for cultural interest.
Famous people named Luna
Luna - similar names
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Ways to spell Luna
| Variant | Language |
|---|---|
| Louna | French variant |
| Lune | French word |
| Selene | Greek equivalent (moon) |
| Lunna | Spelling variant |