Laureen
Feminine · “Latin laurus”
The -een at the end of Kathleen, Maureen, Doreen, Noreen and Eileen is Irish. It is the diminutive -in, and it is the same suffix in colleen, which is simply the Irish for a little girl, and in poteen and boreen. A whole class of English girls' names ends in an Irish grammatical ending.
How old is the name Laureen?
Laureen first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Laureen alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 6,000 people named Laureen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laureen most popular?
Laureen peaked in 1960, reaching #516 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,941 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From laurus to Laureen
The story of Laureen
Irish forms diminutives with -in, and the suffix crossed into English in two ways. It came in attached to Irish words that English borrowed as words: colleen from cailin, a girl; poteen from poitin, a little pot; boreen from boithrin, a little road; shebeen; smithereens. And it came in attached to names, where Maire gave Mairin and then Maureen, Caitlin gave Kathleen, and the pattern went productive in English so that Doreen, Noreen, Laureen and Charleen were built on it by people with no Irish at all. The suffix is therefore doing real grammatical work in Irish and none in English, where it is simply a fashionable ending of the 1930s to 1960s. Colleen is the odd one out: it entered English as a common noun and then became a given name, which almost never happens.
Meaning
Latin laurus, the laurel
Laureen is built from Laura, from Latin laurus, the laurel or bay tree, with the -een ending. That ending entered English from the Irish diminutive suffix -in, seen in Cailin, a girl, which gave English colleen, and in the names Maureen, Kathleen, Doreen and Noreen. The American peak is 1960.
How the name formed
- laurus
- Laura
- Laureen
Related forms: Laurene · Lauren · Labhaoise
Pronouncing Laureen
law-REEN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Laureen and Laurene are homophones. Lauren, without the extra e, is stressed on the first syllable instead.
Nicknames for Laureen
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 1958349 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #516reached in 1960
- Change vs 2021
- +66.7%10 in 2025, from 6
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.
Laureen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laurene in English — spelling variant
- Lauren in English — related form
- Labhaoise in Irish — related form
Laureens among us
people named Laureen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Laureen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Laureen
- #9457
- Laureen on the 2025 chart
- #377
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Laureen went to 10 girls in 2025, but Lauren is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 787, which makes it the 377th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,080 places above the chart.
- Lauren777
- Laureen10
About 1 girl in 2,042 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Laureen itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Carroll test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Laureen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carroll climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carroll's path sketches the road Laureen is walking now.
Laureen 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
Laureen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Laureen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Laurie works as a short form and is a familiar name.
- Laura is available as the parent name.
- The stressed ending gives it a firm final beat.
- Lauren and Laurene are both commoner.
- The stress falls differently from Lauren, which looks similar.
- The 1960 peak places it in the mid-century.
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Laureen
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Laureens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,000 people named Laureen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Laureen?
- Laureen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lauren is the more common one — 777 births in 2025 against 10 for Laureen.
- How popular is the name Laureen in 2025?
- Laureen ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Laureen?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Laureen — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Laureen with classmates?
- Laureen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Laureen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laureen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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