Lula is a 19th-century American diminutive — variously of Louise (Germanic "famous warrior"), Lucille (Latin "light"), or Tallulah. A top-100 US baby name from 1880 to 1903, peaking at #65 in 1882. Lula Washington (born 1951) — *American dancer and choreographer; founder of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre (1980) in South Central Los Angeles — one of the few African American modern-dance institutions in the western United States; choreographed movement for James Cameron's Avatar (2009) creating the Na'vi dances. Lula Carson McCullers — birth name of novelist Carson McCullers (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, 1940). Lula Mae Hardaway (1930-2006) — mother of Stevie Wonder; co-wrote several of his hits including "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (1970). Lula Borges — Brazilian musician. "Lula" is the universal nickname of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil (2003-2010, 2023-present), though as a male reference. Lula (2004 film). Lula in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990)* — Laura Dern's character opposite Nicolas Cage; the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Featured throughout American cultural history.
Lula does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Lula reduce to 1, The Leader. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.