From the English word for fortune, carried into personal naming as a short surname-rooted modern name.
Luck as a given name belongs to the long tradition of virtue and word names in the English-speaking world, sitting alongside Faith, Hope, and Grace as a name that wears its meaning on its sleeve. The English word 'luck' derives from Middle Low German 'lucke' or Dutch 'luk,' entering the language around the fifteenth century and rapidly weaving itself into the fabric of English idiom. To name a child Luck is to bestow a blessing outright — a wish made permanent in language.
As a surname, Luck has a respectable British history, and surnames-as-first-names have been fashionable in cycles from the Puritan era to the present day. The name also carries associations with the Roman goddess Fortuna and her Greek counterpart Tyche, deities of fortune whose cults were enormously popular in the ancient Mediterranean world. In Chinese culture, luck (幸運, xìngyùn) is among the most valued qualities one can wish for a child, and the name resonates positively in multicultural families seeking a word with cross-cultural warmth.
In recent decades, Luck has attracted renewed attention partly through cultural figures — most notably Andrew Luck, the celebrated NFL quarterback whose career and graceful retirement made his unusual given name widely familiar. The name projects an easy confidence, a sense that fortune is not passively awaited but is somehow already present. Short, punchy, and impossible to mishear, it is a name that ages surprisingly well.