Loretha
Feminine · “from an Italian shrine”
The th here replaces two t's and makes the name shorter by a letter. Loretta has a doubled consonant in the middle, which is Italian; Loretha has a single digraph, which is English, and the substitution quietly moves the name out of one orthographic tradition and into another.
How old is the name Loretha?
Loretha first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Loretha alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 1,100 people named Loretha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Loretha most popular?
Loretha peaked in 1935, reaching #1135 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Loreto to Loretha
The story of Loretha
The th spellings cluster in one region and one generation. Gertha, Loretha, Doretha, Bertha and Martha appear together in American records from the same decades and disproportionately from the same parts of the country, and the pattern is too consistent to be coincidence — a spelling habit spreading through communities the way habits do, applied to whatever names were in use. What the habit was doing is another question. The likeliest answer is that a th ending simply looked like a woman's name to the people writing, because the names that already had one did.
Meaningscholars disagree
from an Italian shrine
The parent name refers to a place of pilgrimage rather than to a person, and the place's own name is of uncertain origin. The substituted consonant does not affect any of that.
How the name formed
- Loreto
- Loretta
- Loretha
Pronouncing Loretha
luh-REE-thuh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The th is voiceless, which is what separates the name audibly from the Italian original.
Nicknames for Loretha
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
- 1910
- Most girls named
- 195445 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1135reached in 1935
- Change vs 1991
- −37.5%5 in 1995, from 8
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.
Lorethas among us
people named Loretha are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Loretha sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has short forms from either end with different characters.
- The rhythm is even and the name carries well at length.
- The spelling is distinctive without containing anything difficult.
- Loretta is far commoner and this gets corrected constantly.
- The th replaces a consonant that belonged to the name.
- The generation that used it is now elderly.
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Loretha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Lorethas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Loretha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Loretha in 2025?
- Loretha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Loretha with classmates?
- Loretha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Linda#902 · Lisa#987 · Laura#379 · Lauren#401 · Lillian#57 · Lori#1721 · Louise#514 · Lois#1666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Loretha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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