Lorena
Feminine · “Either 'laurel' or 'from Lorraine”
Lorena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 44,960 girls against 219 boys since 1880.
Lorena is the name of one of the most-sung ballads of the American Civil War — a parlour song of 1856 that soldiers on both sides carried in their heads through four years of marching. It has been on American birth records without a break ever since, and it is at the same time a fully at-home name in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, spelled exactly the same way in all of them.
How old is the name Lorena?
Lorena was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lorena alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 32,500 people named Lorena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lorena most popular?
Lorena peaked in 1899, reaching #233 nationally. Today it ranks #1291, 1,058 places below that high. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Laurus to Lorena
The story of Lorena
The name's American history begins with a song: the lyricist Henry D. L. Webster wrote the words to 'Lorena' in the mid-1850s, Joseph Philbrick Webster set them to music, and the sheet music traveled through camps on both sides of the Civil War. Names lifted from popular songs usually flare and fade; this one settled instead, appearing on US birth records from the earliest years such records were kept and never dropping off. Separately, and probably independently, Lorena grew as an everyday given name across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, where it is also the name of a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The two streams meet in the United States, which is part of why the name is strongest today in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either 'laurel' or 'from Lorraine', depending on which line you follow
Two serious readings compete. One treats Lorena as a Latinate extension of Laura and Lora, from Latin laurus, the laurel tree. The other treats it as the Spanish and Italian form of Lorraine, the French region whose name goes back to Lotharingia, the kingdom of Lothar. Both are ordinary, well-attested ways of building a name, and neither has won.
How the name formed
- Laurus
- Laura
- Lora
- Lorena
Related forms: Lorena · Lorena · Lorena · Lorena · Lorraine · Lorene
Pronouncing Lorena
luh-REE-nuh
That is the usual English pronunciation, and the one the Civil War song carries. In Spanish and Portuguese it is lo-REH-nah, with a pure vowel in the middle. Both are correct for the same spelling, so it is worth deciding which one your household will use and answering to it consistently.
Nicknames for Lorena
High
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1981726 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #233reached in 1899
- Change vs 2022
- −8.0%173 in 2025, from 188
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.
Lorena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lorena in Spanish — same name
- Lorena in Portuguese — same name
- Lorena in Italian — same name
- Lorena in Croatian — same name
- Lorraine in French — related form
- Lorene in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Lorenas among us
people named Lorena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,291 born in 2025 was named Lorena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Lorena 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 Lorena is headed
Lorena should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Lorena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lorena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled identically in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Croatian — it crosses borders without changing a letter.
- Unbroken presence on American birth records since the beginning of those records, so it reads as familiar rather than new.
- Ready-made short forms in two languages: Lori in English, Lore and Loli in Spanish.
- Common enough that no one asks how to spell it, uncommon enough that a classroom is unlikely to hold a second one.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: luh-REE-nuh in English, lo-REH-nah in Spanish. Neither is wrong, but a child may spend a lifetime correcting people in one direction or the other.
- It sits close to Lorraine, Lorene, Loreen and Laurena, and people who hear it once will sometimes write back with the wrong one.
- A heavily covered American criminal trial in the early 1990s attached the name to a news story for a while. It has faded a great deal, though adults who followed the coverage may still recall it.
- Its strongest footing in the US is in California, Texas and Florida; elsewhere it will be recognized easily but heard less often.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lorena to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lorena
Feminine · #1291 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lorenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 32,500 people named Lorena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lorena in 2025?
- Lorena ranks #1291 among US girl names in 2025, with 173 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lorena?
- About 1 in every 9,291 US girls born in 2025 was named Lorena — 173 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lorena with classmates?
- Lorena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lorena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eliyanah#1291 · Nelly#1291 · Kaydence#1291 · Patience#1295 · Laynie#1295 · Rori#1295 · Devyn#1295 · Micaela#1285
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lorena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lorena and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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