Dolores
Feminine · “sorrows”
Dolores is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 211,440 girls against 1,336 boys since 1880. See Dolores as a boy name
Dolores is the Latin word for pains, and the singular of it is still in use in one place: medicine. The four classical signs of inflammation are redness, heat, swelling and pain, and the fourth of them is this word, listed in Latin in textbooks that have otherwise been in English for two hundred years.
How old is the name Dolores?
Dolores was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Dolores alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 74,000 people named Dolores are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dolores most popular?
Dolores peaked in 1930, reaching #13 nationally. Today it ranks #2564, 2,551 places below that high. See the whole 1930 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Latin plural noun meaning pains or sorrows to Dolores
Our story of Dolores
The short form is the most successful cut in Spanish naming. Take the middle syllable of the name, double the consonant around it, and the result is Lola: three letters that retain nothing of the original except one sound, are said in every language without instruction, and have been carried by dancers, singers and characters in half the novels of the nineteenth century. Nobody meeting a Lola would guess the name behind it, and a great many Lolas have not been Doloreses at all, because the short form left home and became a name in its own right. The full name is heavy and specific; the short one is weightless. Families have been choosing both at once for a century.
Meaning
sorrows
The Latin noun covers both bodily pain and grief, and the name is its plural. The reading is settled. English has kept the two senses in separate words — dolour for grief, and the untranslated Latin in the medical list — so the single word behind the name has no single English equivalent any more.
How the name formed
- A Latin plural noun meaning pains or sorrows
- A Spanish devotional name from a title of the Virgin
- Carried across Spanish-speaking America
- Lola cut from the middle and set loose
Related forms: Dolores · Addolorata · Dores
Pronouncing Dolores
duh-LOR-us
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Spanish sounds the final s clearly and English tends to swallow it, which is the main difference between the two versions of the name.
Nicknames for Dolores
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 193012,842 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #13reached in 1930
- Change vs 2022
- −12.8%68 in 2025, from 78
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dolores in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dolores in Spanish — same name
- Addolorata in Italian — related form
- Dores in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Doloress among us
people named Dolores are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 23,636 born in 2025 was named Dolores
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rose test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dolores's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rose climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rose's path sketches the road Dolores is walking now.
Dolores sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Dolores is headed
Dolores should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Dolores beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dolores in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Lola comes out of it as one of the most portable short names there is.
- It is used unchanged across the whole Spanish-speaking world.
- The meaning is exact and takes one word to give.
- The meaning is sorrows, which many families weigh carefully.
- It is strongly associated with the early twentieth century in America.
- The spelling appears on the register for both sexes in small numbers.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dolores to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dolores
Feminine · #2564 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Doloress are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 74,000 people named Dolores are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dolores in 2025?
- Dolores ranks #2564 among US girl names in 2025, with 68 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dolores?
- About 1 in every 23,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Dolores — 68 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dolores with classmates?
- Dolores will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dolores
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Manuela#2564 · Sabina#2564 · Jacklyn#2564 · Miliana#2564 · Xareni#2564 · Nyx#2564 · Porter#2564 · Davie#2564
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dolores? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dolores and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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