Laurita
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "laurel tree" or "crowned with laurels".
Name Census estimates that about 345 living Americans carry the first name Laurita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Laurita today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Laurita births was 1954 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Laurita. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
345
~ 1 in 993,491 Americans
Peak year
1954
26 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1992 SSA rank
#10,018
Tracked since 1915
Census
Laurita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 566 people with the first name Laurita, which placed it at #18,900 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#18,900
National first-name rank
People counted
566
566 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Laurita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laurita is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (22.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Laurita described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Laurita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.3% · 251
- Black or African American23.3% · 132
- Hispanic or Latino22.6% · 128
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 27
- Two or more races2.7% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 13
Popularity
Laurita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Laurita from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 176 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Laurita by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Laurita during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lauritas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Laurita
The name Laurita is a feminine Spanish diminutive form of the name Laura, which is derived from the Latin word "laurus" meaning "laurel." The laurel was a plant highly revered in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, with its leaves woven into wreaths or crowns to honor victors, poets, and scholars.
The earliest known use of the name Laura can be traced back to the 9th century, when it was borne by a famous Spanish martyr, Saint Laura of Cordoba. She was a young woman who was executed for her Christian faith during the Muslim rule in Spain in the year 864.
Another notable historical figure with the name Laurita is Laurita Toring de Teffé, a Brazilian noblewoman who lived from 1891 to 1976. She was a member of the Brazilian imperial family and played a significant role in preserving the history and traditions of the Empire of Brazil.
In the realm of literature, Laurita is the name of a character in the novel "The Marrow of Tradition" by Charles W. Chesnutt, published in 1901. The novel explores the themes of race relations and the aftermath of the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 in North Carolina.
Moving to the arts, Laurita Spina was an Italian painter who lived from 1915 to 1976. She was known for her captivating portraits and landscapes, and her works are displayed in various museums and galleries across Italy.
Lastly, Laurita Milo was an Albanian singer and actress who lived from 1919 to 2005. She was a prominent figure in the cultural scene of communist Albania, known for her powerful voice and performances in numerous operas and operettas.
While the name Laurita may not be as common today, its historical significance and connections to various cultures and time periods make it a unique and intriguing choice for a given name.
People
Laurita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Laurita as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Laurita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Laurita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 345 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Laurita going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 993,491 US residents.
Is Laurita a common name?
We classify Laurita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 629 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Laurita most popular?
The single biggest year for Laurita was 1954, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Laurita is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Laurita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 566 people with the name Laurita, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,900 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Laurita in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Laurita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Laurita appears almost entirely female. Of the 570 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Laurita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Laurita is White at 44.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (22.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Laurita most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Laurita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.3% (251 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Laurita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Laurita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Laurita in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Laurita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Laurita in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Laurita can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Laurita?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.