Loletha
A variant spelling of Lolita, a feminine Russian name meaning "alluring temptress".
Name Census estimates that about 197 living Americans carry the first name Loletha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Loletha today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Loletha births was 1960 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Loletha. 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
197
~ 1 in 1,739,870 Americans
Peak year
1960
15 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
1982 SSA rank
#11,493
Tracked since 1948
Census
Loletha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 213 people with the first name Loletha, which placed it at #36,939 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
#36,939
National first-name rank
People counted
213
213 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Loletha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loletha is Black at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.3%) and Hispanic (0.9%). 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 Loletha 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 Loletha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.8% · 202
- Two or more races3.3% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 2
- White0.5% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Loletha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Loletha from the 1940s through to the 1980s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 96 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Loletha 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 Loletha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Loletha
The name Loletha is believed to have originated from a combination of the English names Lola and Letha. It is a relatively modern name that first gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in the United States.
The name Lola is a shortened form of the Spanish name Dolores, which means "sorrows" and has its roots in the Virgin Mary's title "Our Lady of Sorrows." Letha, on the other hand, is a variant of the Greek name Lethia, which means "oblivion" or "forgetfulness."
While there are no known ancient historical references or appearances in religious scriptures, the earliest recorded use of the name Loletha can be traced back to the late 19th century in the United States. Some of the earliest documented individuals with this name include Loletha Harris, born in 1878 in Missouri, and Loletha Gaines, born in 1882 in Alabama.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Loletha was Loletha Greenwood (1899-1974), an American actress and singer who performed on Broadway and in vaudeville during the early 20th century. She is best known for her roles in the musicals "Show Boat" and "Porgy and Bess."
Another notable Loletha was Loletha Elkins (1928-2013), an American gospel singer and songwriter who was a member of the celebrated gospel group The Caravans. She was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
Loletha Holloway (1924-2011) was an American civil rights activist and educator who played a significant role in the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the 1950s. She was also a member of the Arkansas State Board of Education.
Loletha Boudreaux (1936-2022) was a renowned Creole chef from Louisiana, known for her expertise in Creole and Cajun cuisine. She authored several cookbooks and was celebrated for preserving and promoting the culinary traditions of her region.
Loletha Adkins (1943-2004) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who was part of the folk revival movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She released several albums and performed at various folk festivals throughout her career.
People
Loletha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Loletha 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
Loletha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Loletha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Loletha 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 1,739,870 US residents.
Is Loletha a common name?
We classify Loletha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Loletha most popular?
The single biggest year for Loletha was 1960, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Loletha is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Loletha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 213 people with the name Loletha, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,939 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 Loletha 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 Loletha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loletha appears almost entirely female. Of the 220 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Loletha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loletha is Black at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.3%) and Hispanic (0.9%). 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 Loletha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Loletha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.8% (202 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 Loletha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Loletha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Loletha 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 Loletha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Loletha 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 Loletha 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 Loletha?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Loletha on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.