Loa
Feminine · “long”
There is a town called Loa in Utah, and it is named after a Hawaiian volcano. A Mormon missionary who had served in the islands came home, helped settle a valley in Wayne County, and gave it the second half of Mauna Loa.
How old is the name Loa?
Loa first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Loa alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 400 people named Loa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Loa most popular?
Loa peaked in 1894, reaching #1136 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,410 places below that high. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From loa to Loa
The story of Loa
Mormon missionaries served in Hawaii from 1850, and several Utah place names came home with them; Loa in Wayne County was named in the 1870s by a returning missionary, and it is one of a small set of Polynesian names on the Utah map. The given name appears in American records of the 1880s and 1890s, with a best year of 1894, and the Utah concentration is visible in the data. Independently, Icelandic Loa is a genuine bird name used for women, and the golden plover's return each spring is reported in Icelandic newspapers as the first sign of the season. The two have nothing to do with each other.
Meaningscholars disagree
long, tall
Hawaiian loa means long, tall or very, and Mauna Loa is the long mountain. The Utah town takes its name from that. Separately, Icelandic loa is the golden plover, whose spring arrival is a national event, and it is used as a woman's name there. A third route makes the American Loa a short form of a longer name. The 1890s American records could reflect any of these.
How the name formed
- loa
- Mauna Loa
- Loa
Related forms: Loa · Loa
Pronouncing Loa
LOH-ah
Two syllables, each vowel given its own value, which is how Hawaiian works. English speakers often say LOH in one syllable, collapsing the ending.
Nicknames for Loa
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 193624 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1136reached in 1894
- Change vs 2023
- −26.1%17 in 2025, from 23
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.
Loa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Loa in Hawaiian — same name
- Loa in Icelandic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Loas among us
people named Loa are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Loa
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Loa
- #6546
- Loa on the 2025 chart
- #936
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Loa went to 17 girls in 2025, but Loah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 24, which makes it the 936th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,610 places above the chart.
- Loa17
- Loah7
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Loa 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
Fashion outlook
Loa 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
Loa beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Loa in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and no spelling difficulty whatsoever.
- A concrete meaning available in Hawaiian and a bird in Icelandic.
- Genuinely rare while being entirely easy to say.
- English speakers will collapse it into one syllable.
- Two unrelated traditions share the spelling.
- It reads as a nineteenth-century American name, because that is its period.
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Loa
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Loas 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 Loa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Loa?
- Loa is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 24 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Loah.
- How popular is the name Loa in 2025?
- Loa ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Loa?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Loa — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Loa with classmates?
- Loa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Loa
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Loa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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