Loraine
A feminine French name derived from the regional name Lorraine, meaning "from Lotharingia".
Name Census estimates that about 5,862 living Americans carry the first name Loraine. It is a predominantly female name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Loraine today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Loraine births was 1922 (439 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Loraine. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Loraine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Loraine is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 340 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
5.9K
~ 1 in 58,471 Americans
Peak year
1922
439 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1940 SSA rank
#3,745
Tracked since 1883
Census
Loraine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,124 people with the first name Loraine, which placed it at #2,613 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
#2,613
National first-name rank
People counted
9.1K
9,124 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Loraine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loraine is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Black (14.8%) and Hispanic (13.6%). 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 Loraine 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 Loraine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.2% · 5,952
- Black or African American14.8% · 1,349
- Hispanic or Latino13.6% · 1,237
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 287
- Two or more races2.4% · 222
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 77
Gender
Gender distribution for Loraine
Loraine leans heavily female at 98.1% of total registrations, but 340 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Loraine as a male name
- Ranked #3,745 in 1940
- 5 male births in 1940
- Peak: 1923 (24 births)
Loraine as a female name
- Ranked #6,794 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1922 (424 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loraine appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,120 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Loraine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Loraine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 4,125 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Loraine 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 Loraine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Loraines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. New York, Michigan, Texas recorded the most babies named Loraine, while Rhode Island, Idaho, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 287 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Loraine
The name Loraine has its roots in the French language, deriving from the ancient regional name "Lorraine." This region, located in modern-day northeastern France, was historically known as the Duchy of Lorraine. The name itself can be traced back to the Latin word "Lotharingia," which referred to the territories assigned to the Frankish ruler Lothair I in the 9th century.
The earliest recorded use of the name Loraine can be found in medieval French documents from the 12th and 13th centuries. It was initially a regional surname before gaining popularity as a given name in its own right. In the 14th century, the name was associated with the House of Lorraine, a prominent noble family that ruled the Duchy of Lorraine for several centuries.
One of the earliest notable figures bearing the name Loraine was Lorraine of Vaudémont (1390-1453), a noblewoman and the wife of King René of Anjou. During the Renaissance period, the name gained further prominence with Lorraine de Guise (1553-1601), a French princess and member of the influential House of Guise.
In the 17th century, the name Loraine was introduced to England and became increasingly popular among the English nobility. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Lorraine, Duchess of Cleveland (1642-1709), a prominent mistress of King Charles II of England.
The name Loraine also found its way into literature and art. In the 19th century, the French writer Alfred de Musset featured a character named Lorraine in his play "Lorenzaccio." Additionally, the American artist Loraine Hansberry (1930-1965) gained widespread recognition for her groundbreaking play "A Raisin in the Sun," which explored themes of racial injustice and the pursuit of the American Dream.
Other notable individuals named Loraine throughout history include Loraine Vivian Hansberry (1899-1972), an American educator and mother of the aforementioned playwright; Loraine Masterton (1932-2014), an American operatic soprano; Loraine Toussaint (born 1960), an American actress known for her roles in various television series; and Loraine Chia (born 1978), a Singaporean singer and songwriter.
People
Loraine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Loraine 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
Loraine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Loraine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,862 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Loraine 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 58,471 US residents.
Is Loraine a common name?
We classify Loraine as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,599 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Loraine most popular?
The single biggest year for Loraine was 1922, when 439 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Loraine is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Loraine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,124 people with the name Loraine, or 3.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,613 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 Loraine 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 Loraine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loraine appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,120 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 Loraine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loraine is White at 65.2%. The next largest groups are Black (14.8%) and Hispanic (13.6%). 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 Loraine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Loraine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.2% (5,952 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 Loraine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Loraine a female name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Loraine 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 Loraine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Loraine 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 Loraine 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 many people share the name Loraine?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.