From Germanic 'Liuthari' meaning people's army, famously associated with Martin Luther.
Luther is an old Germanic name, usually traced to elements meaning "people" and "army," yielding a sense like "army of the people" or "people's warrior." Some historical discussions also connect it with the classical name Eleutherius, from Greek eleutheros, "free," though the Germanic explanation is the standard one for the name as used in northern Europe. In sound, Luther is firm and austere; in history, it is inseparable from one towering bearer: Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century theologian whose challenge to church authority helped ignite the Protestant Reformation.
Because of Martin Luther, the name changed from a Germanic personal and family name into a confessional emblem. In Protestant communities, especially in Germany and the English-speaking world, Luther became a given name chosen in admiration or remembrance. , whose first and middle names consciously invoked that Reformation inheritance.
The name therefore bridges religious history and civil-rights history in an unusual, potent way. Over time, Luther's public image has softened somewhat. Once it sounded stern, doctrinal, and distinctly ecclesiastical; today it can feel vintage, scholarly, even soulful, helped by modern bearers in music, television, and public life.
It appears in literature less as a romantic ornament than as a name of moral gravity. Luther endures because it carries substance: old Germanic strength, Reformation thunder, and the ongoing idea that conviction can change history.