Loralee
Feminine · “murmuring rock”
There is a rock on the Rhine where the river narrows and the current turns dangerous, and it echoes. The old name for it joins a word for murmuring to a word for rock. A poet in 1824 explained the echo by putting a woman on top of it, and the song has been sung ever since.
How old is the name Loralee?
Loralee first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Loralee alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 1,500 people named Loralee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Loralee most popular?
Loralee peaked in 1938, reaching #1031 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,886 places below that high. See the whole 1938 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lureln to Loralee
The story of Loralee
The Lorelei is a real slate cliff at the narrowest and most dangerous stretch of the Rhine, and its name describes what it does: it murmurs, because the current and the rock face together produce an echo. There was no legend attached to it until a German writer invented one in 1801, and Heine's poem of 1824 fixed the story of the woman combing her hair while boatmen forget to steer. Set to music in 1837, it became one of the most sung songs in the German language. The American Loralee may descend from that or may simply be Lora plus the -lee ending that was attached to everything in the same decades. Both roads are real; only one has a cliff at the end of it.
Meaningscholars disagree
murmuring rock
If the name is Lorelei, the elements are Middle High German lureln, to murmur or lurk, and ley, a rock or cliff — a description of the place, not a person. If it is Lora with the American ending -lee, the front half comes from Laura, the laurel, and the ending means nothing. The spelling supports both.
How the name formed
- lureln
- Lorelei
- Loralee
Related forms: Lorelei
Pronouncing Loralee
LOR-uh-lee
Three syllables, stress on the first. The German Lorelei ends with a long i sound, LOR-uh-lye, which is a different last syllable entirely; the American spelling has replaced it with an ee.
Nicknames for Loralee
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
- 1922
- Most girls named
- 193848 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1031reached in 1938
- Change vs 2022
- −20.0%8 in 2025, from 10
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.
Loralee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lorelei in German — related form
Loralees among us
people named Loralee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Loralee
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 Willetta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Loralee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Willetta climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Willetta's path sketches the road Loralee is walking now.
Loralee 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
Loralee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Loralee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three syllables with a clear falling rhythm that suits most surnames.
- Two short forms that are full names on their own.
- It has a real place behind it, which can be visited and photographed.
- Lorelei, Loralei and Loralee are all in use and mean different things about your intention.
- It is strongly represented among older generations and carries the middle of the last century.
- The song behind the German name is about drowning, which is worth knowing before someone mentions it.
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What they receive
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Loralee
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Loralees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Loralee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Loralee in 2025?
- Loralee ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Loralee?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Loralee — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Loralee with classmates?
- Loralee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Loralee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Loralee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Loralee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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