Loraine
Feminine · “kingdom of Lothar”
Loraine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 17,284 girls against 340 boys since 1880.
Loraine is a French province spelled one letter short — Lorraine, named for a Frankish king's kingdom, which is why the name means the realm of Lothar.
How old is the name Loraine?
Loraine first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Loraine alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 6,900 people named Loraine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Loraine most popular?
Loraine peaked in 1919, reaching #310 nationally. Today it ranks #5099, 4,789 places below that high. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lotharingia to Loraine
The story of Loraine
Lorraine was fought over between France and Germany for a thousand years, and the Cross of Lorraine became the emblem of the Free French. Its use as a girls' name is nineteenth-century English and rose sharply after the First World War, when the region was constantly in the news. The single-r spelling ran alongside it, peaking around 1930.
Meaning
kingdom of Lothar
From Lotharingia, 'the lands of Lothar' — Lothar II, who ruled the territory in the ninth century. His own name is the Germanic hlud, 'famous', and heri, 'army'. Lotharingia contracted to Lorraine in French and Lothringen in German. The meaning is documented and undisputed.
How the name formed
- Lotharingia
- Lorraine
- Loraine
Related forms: Lorraine · Lothringen · Lorraine
Pronouncing Loraine
luh-RAYN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Loraine and Lorraine are said identically.
Nicknames for Loraine
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
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 1922424 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #310reached in 1919
- Change vs 2022
- +31.6%25 in 2025, from 19
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.
Loraine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lorraine in English — spelling variant
- Lothringen in German — related form
- Lorraine in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Loraines among us
people named Loraine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was named Loraine
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Loraine
- #5099
- Loraine on the 2025 chart
- #702
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Loraine went to 25 girls in 2025, but Lorraine is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 263, which makes it the 702nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,397 places above the chart.
- Lorraine238
- Loraine25
About 1 girl in 6,111 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 64,291 for Loraine 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 Isabell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Loraine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Isabell climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Isabell's path sketches the road Loraine is walking now.
Loraine 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 Loraine is headed
Loraine 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.
Loraine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Loraine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real European region with a documented thousand-year history stands behind it.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Lori and Rainey pull in very different directions as short forms.
- Lorraine is much the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- It is strongly period-coded to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Loraine
Feminine · #5099 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Loraines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,900 people named Loraine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Loraine?
- Loraine is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lorraine is the more common one — 238 births in 2025 against 25 for Loraine.
- How popular is the name Loraine in 2025?
- Loraine ranks #5099 among US girl names in 2025, with 25 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Loraine?
- About 1 in every 64,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Loraine — 25 in all.
- Will my child share the name Loraine with classmates?
- Loraine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Loraine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janette#5099 · Delfina#5099 · Hali#5099 · Mecca#5099 · Zoi#5099 · Afia#5099 · Binta#5099 · Emelie#5099
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Loraine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Loraine and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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