Loring
Masculine · “The man from Lorraine”
Loring is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,285 boys against 22 girls since 1880.
Most English surnames that say where a family came from name a village. Loring names a country. It is the Old French for the man from Lorraine, carried to England by Normans and used ever since by people with no connection to the place at all.
How old is the name Loring?
Loring first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Loring alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 500 people named Loring are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Loring most popular?
Loring peaked in 1896, reaching #826 nationally. See the whole 1896 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lohereng to Loring
The story of Loring
Surnames of origin are a whole class in English, and almost all of them are local: Darrell, Lacey, Mortimer and Percy all name particular Norman villages, some of them tiny, and the family that took the name usually held it. Loring is the odd one out in scale. A man called the Lorrainer was being identified by a region large enough to be a duchy, which suggests he arrived somewhere that had never met anybody from there, and the description stuck because it was the most useful thing anybody could say about him. The name came to America early, moved to the front where surnames go in American naming, and has been given to daughters as well as sons for as long as the record runs.
Meaning
The man from Lorraine
Old French Lohereng, a Lorrainer, which English wore down to Loring. The place behind it is the duchy on the border between France and Germany that has changed hands so often that both languages have a full name for it. Nothing in the surname describes a person; it describes a journey somebody made once, and everyone descended from them inherited the description.
How the name formed
- Lohereng
- Loring
Related forms: Lorrain
Pronouncing Loring
LOR-ing
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The ending is the ordinary English -ing, which makes the name look like a verb form and is the reason it reads as a word before it reads as a name.
Nicknames for Loring
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 boys named
- 192234 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #826reached in 1896
- Change vs 1982
- +40.0%7 in 1990, 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.
Loring in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lorrain in French — related form
Lorings among us
people named Loring 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
Loring 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
- Short, easy to spell and easy to say, with a documented meaning that fits in a phrase.
- It works for a child of either sex, since a surname carries no sex of its own.
- The history behind it is real, specific and checkable on any map.
- The record holds this spelling for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- The -ing ending makes the name look like a present participle, which invites jokes.
- It reads as a surname and will be entered into the wrong field more than once.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Loring 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 Loring? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Loring
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Lorings 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 Loring are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Loring in 2025?
- Loring is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Loring with classmates?
- Loring will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Loring? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Loring 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