Lorette
Feminine · “little Laura”
Lorette is a French name with a complication behind it. For about a hundred years in France, the word was not only a name — it was a word, and not a kind one. It came out of a Paris neighborhood, it was coined by a journalist, and Balzac and half the illustrators of the century used it until everyone knew what it meant.
How old is the name Lorette?
Lorette first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Lorette alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 500 people named Lorette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lorette most popular?
Lorette peaked in 1909, reaching #1290 nationally. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From the Italian shrine at Loreto gives names across Catholic Europe to Lorette
The story of Lorette
In the 1840s a Paris journalist named a type. Around the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, in a quarter of new and cheaply built apartment houses, lived a population of young women supported by men who did not live there, and Nestor Roqueplan called them lorettes, after the parish. The word stuck hard. Balzac used it, Gavarni drew them by the hundred, and for the rest of the century a Frenchman reading the word in a newspaper thought first of a kept woman and second of a saint's shrine. It is one of the cleanest examples in any language of a place name becoming a name for a woman and then a name for a way of living.
Meaningscholars disagree
little Laura, or of the shrine at Loreto
Two sources are available and the record does not choose. Lorette can be a French diminutive of Laure, the French Laura, which comes from the laurel. It can equally be the French form of Loreto, the Italian shrine, which produced given names all over Catholic Europe. Families used it for both reasons, sometimes in the same town, and a certificate does not record which church a name came out of.
How the name formed
- the Italian shrine at Loreto gives names across Catholic Europe
- Laure and its French diminutives run in parallel
- a Paris parish lends its name to a social type in the 1840s
- Lorette appears in American records around 1900
- out of use before mid-century
Related forms: Laure · Loreta · Loreto · Loretta
Pronouncing Lorette
loh-RET
Two syllables with the stress at the back, French fashion, and a hard final t. American speakers often give it three, loh-RET-uh, which is really Loretta wearing the other spelling.
Nicknames for Lorette
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
- 1897
- Most girls named
- 195646 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1290reached in 1909
- Change vs 1981
- 0.0%5 in 2012, from 5
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.
Lorette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Laure in French — related form
- Loreta in Italian — related form
- Loreto in Spanish — related form
- Loretta in English — spelling variant
Lorettes among us
people named Lorette 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
Lorette 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 is short, elegant and unmistakably French without being difficult for an English speaker.
- Lori and Etta are both waiting inside it, and both stand alone.
- It has a real place behind it — a shrine, a Paris parish and a great deal of nineteenth-century art.
- Loretta is far commoner in America and will be substituted constantly, in speech and on paper.
- The French word history is not flattering, and anyone reading nineteenth-century French will meet it.
- The name is firmly of its period and has had no revival.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lorette to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Lorette? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Lorette
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Lorettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Lorette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lorette in 2025?
- Lorette is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lorette with classmates?
- Lorette 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 Lorette? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lorette and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle