Meaning: Its source is Hlutwig, an Ancient Germanic name meaning "Famous warrior."

Languages: This girl's name is used in Italian, Spanish and Polish.

Nicknames: Luis

Compound Forms: Marisa

Popularity: The name Luisa ranked 701st in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census.

Narrative: The Ancient Germanic name Hlutwig was Latinized into Ludovicus. The French shortened this to Clovis, and over time dropped the ''c'' and changed the ''v'' to a ''u.'' Voilá, Louis. In the opinion of the French, this was an excellent name for a king -- eighteen of them, in fact.

Somewhere in this progression, the feminine Latin form Louisa was changed by the French into Louise, and from the interplay of these names a bouquet of girls' names grew -- Eloise, Heloise, Eloisa, Luisa and others.