Laretta
Feminine · “of Loreto”
There is a house in Italy that is said to have flown. The tradition holds that the Virgin's home in Nazareth was carried by angels to a hilltop in the Marche at the end of the thirteenth century, and the shrine built around it — Loreto — became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of Catholic Europe. Loretta is the name taken from it, and Laretta is the American spelling with the first vowel changed.
How old is the name Laretta?
Laretta first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Laretta alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 400 people named Laretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laretta most popular?
Laretta peaked in 1937, reaching #1845 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,363 places below that high. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lauretum to Laretta
The story of Laretta
The Holy House of Loreto has been venerated since the fourteenth century, and the Litany of Loreto is still recited; the shrine gave its name to churches, towns and children across the Catholic world. Loretta reached American use in the nineteenth century and became genuinely popular in the twentieth. Laretta appears alongside it from the 1900s, always in much smaller numbers, and its first vowel is the sort of thing that happens when a name is passed by ear through families who have never seen it in print.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Loreto
Loretta comes from the Italian shrine of Loreto, whose own name is usually derived from a laurel wood — lauretum in Latin — that stood on the hill. There is a second possibility for the American name: Laretta may simply be Loretta respelled by ear, or a diminutive of Lara or Clara. The record does not choose.
How the name formed
- lauretum
- Loreto
- Loretta
- Laretta
Related forms: Loretta · Loreto
Pronouncing Laretta
luh-RET-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, which the doubled t signals. The first vowel is reduced to almost nothing, which is exactly why it can be written a or o without changing what anyone says.
Nicknames for Laretta
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 193718 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1845reached in 1937
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%6 in 2025, from 5
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.
Laretta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Loretta in Italian — spelling variant
- Loreto in Spanish — related form
Larettas among us
people named Laretta are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Laretta
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 Leida test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Laretta's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leida climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leida's path sketches the road Laretta is walking now.
Laretta 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
Laretta beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Laretta in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three quite different short forms are available, two of them currently in fashion.
- It has a documented Italian shrine behind it with a genuinely remarkable legend attached.
- Three open syllables that sit well after almost any surname.
- Loretta is much the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- The difference is inaudible, so the letters have to be given every time.
- It belongs to an older American generation and carries that flavor.
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What they receive
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Laretta
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Larettas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Laretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Laretta in 2025?
- Laretta ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Laretta?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Laretta — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Laretta with classmates?
- Laretta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Laretta
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laretta? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Laretta and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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