Lorraine
Feminine · “From Lorraine”
Lorraine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 209,910 girls against 935 boys since 1880. See Lorraine as a boy name
Lorraine is a piece of ground before it is a name — the borderland between France and Germany, fought over for as long as either country has existed. It is one of the few names in American use that is also a place a reader can drive to, and a name whose history is mostly other people's wars.
How old is the name Lorraine?
Lorraine first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Lorraine alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 96,000 people named Lorraine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lorraine most popular?
Lorraine peaked in 1928, reaching #39 nationally. Today it ranks #1043, 1,004 places below that high. See the whole 1928 chart.
Where it comes from
From Lotharingia to Lorraine
The story of Lorraine
Two pieces of dynastic bookkeeping explain why the name is everywhere in European history. When an exiled king of Poland lost his throne, France handed him the duchy of Lorraine as a consolation; he settled in Nancy, spent his last decades rebuilding it, and left behind one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. The duchy went to France on his death, which was the point of the arrangement. Its previous duke had been bought out with something better: Francis of Lorraine married Maria Theresa, heir to the Habsburg lands, and gave up his duchy to do it. Every Habsburg since has carried his province in the family name, which is why the house that ruled central Europe into the twentieth century was called Habsburg-Lorraine.
Meaning
From Lorraine, the duchy on the French and German border
The region takes its name from Lothar, a grandson of Charlemagne, whose share of the divided empire was a long strip running from the North Sea to Italy. Lotharingia wore down to Lorraine. The name given to a child means, simply, the woman from that place.
How the name formed
- Lotharingia
- Lorraine
Related forms: Lothringen · Lorena · Lorena
Pronouncing Lorraine
luh-RAYN
Two syllables, stress at the back. The French say it with a nasal ending that English has no way to write and does not attempt.
Nicknames for Lorraine
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 19295,352 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #39reached in 1928
- Change vs 2022
- +30.8%238 in 2025, from 182
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.
Lorraine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lothringen in German — related form
- Lorena in Italian — same name
- Lorena in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Lorraines among us
people named Lorraine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,753 born in 2025 was named Lorraine
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lorraine
- #1043
- Lorraine on the 2025 chart
- #702
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lorraine went to 238 girls in 2025, but Loraine is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 263, which makes it the 702nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 341 places above the chart.
- Lorraine238
- Loraine25
About 1 girl in 6,111 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,753 for Lorraine itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Beatrice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lorraine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Beatrice climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Beatrice's path sketches the road Lorraine is walking now.
Lorraine is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Lorraine is headed
Lorraine should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Lorraine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lorraine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The place behind it is real, mapped and full of history a child can grow into.
- It has been familiar in English for a century without ever becoming a cliché.
- The stress at the back gives it a strong finish, and it has several very different short forms.
- Loraine, Lorrine and Laraine are all in circulation, so expect the spelling to be checked.
- The name is closely tied to one American generation, though it has begun to be given again.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though nearly all of it belongs to the girls.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lorraine
Feminine · #1043 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lorraines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 96,000 people named Lorraine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lorraine?
- Lorraine is the most-used spelling in US records — 238 of the 263 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Loraine.
- How popular is the name Lorraine in 2025?
- Lorraine ranks #1043 among US girl names in 2025, with 238 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lorraine?
- About 1 in every 6,753 US girls born in 2025 was named Lorraine — 238 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lorraine with classmates?
- Lorraine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lorraine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Whitney#1043 · Paisleigh#1043 · Eimy#1043 · Kairi#1040 · Salome#1040 · Alexia#1040 · Lilyana#1047 · Inara#1047
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lorraine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lorraine and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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