Lorretta
Feminine · “of Loreto”
There is a house in Italy that is said to have flown. The Santa Casa at Loreto is claimed to be the Virgin's own house from Nazareth, carried through the air by angels in the thirteenth century, and the shrine built around it gave this name to Catholic Europe.
How old is the name Lorretta?
Lorretta first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Lorretta alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 1,600 people named Lorretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lorretta most popular?
Lorretta peaked in 1939, reaching #996 nationally. See the whole 1939 chart.
Where it comes from
From Loreto to Lorretta
The story of Lorretta
The legend is specific: the house was in Nazareth, the Crusader states fell, and the building was moved first to Croatia and then to a laurel grove on the Italian coast, arriving in the year the last crusader stronghold was lost. Historians have a more prosaic account involving a family called Angeli. Either way the shrine became one of the most visited in Europe, aviators adopted the Virgin of Loreto as their patron in the twentieth century for obvious reasons, and the name spread across Italy and out with Italian emigration. The doubled r in this spelling is English machinery on an Italian word.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Loreto
The name is generally traced to the Italian shrine, whose own name comes from a laurel wood. A second line runs through the Laura names, and the two have mixed thoroughly.
How the name formed
- Loreto
- Loretta
- Lorretta
Related forms: Loretta · Loreto
Pronouncing Lorretta
luh-RET-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The doubled r changes nothing; Loretta and Lorretta are said identically.
Nicknames for Lorretta
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 195762 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #996reached in 1939
- Change vs 1995
- −16.7%5 in 2000, from 6
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.
Lorretta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Loretta in Italian — spelling variant
- Loreto in Spanish — related form
Lorrettas among us
people named Lorretta 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
Lorretta 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
- Every part of it is familiar, so the name is read correctly at sight.
- It carries three short forms with quite different characters.
- The shrine behind it is real, visitable and unusually well documented.
- Loretta is the standard spelling and will be written instead.
- The doubled r adds no sound, so the difference exists only on paper.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Lorretta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Lorrettas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Lorretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lorretta in 2025?
- Lorretta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Lorretta with classmates?
- Lorretta 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 Lorretta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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