Loralee
A feminine name of English origin meaning "pretty laurel tree".
Name Census estimates that about 1,284 living Americans carry the first name Loralee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Loralee today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Loralee births was 1938 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Loralee. 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
1.3K
~ 1 in 266,943 Americans
Peak year
1938
48 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,020
Tracked since 1922
Census
Loralee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,700 people with the first name Loralee, which placed it at #8,524 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
#8,524
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,700 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Loralee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loralee is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Loralee 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 Loralee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.4% · 1,553
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 54
- Two or more races2.6% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 16
- Black or African American0.7% · 12
Popularity
Loralee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Loralee from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 361 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
Loralee 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 Loralee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Loralees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, Michigan, Utah recorded the most babies named Loralee, while Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Loralee
The name Loralee is a feminine given name of uncertain etymology, though it is believed to have originated in the United States or Canada in the late 19th or early 20th century. It is a compound name, likely derived from a combination of the names Laura and Lee.
The name Laura is derived from the Latin word "laurus," meaning "laurel." The laurel was a plant associated with honor and victory in ancient Roman culture. The name Lee is an English surname that originated as a topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or clearing. It is derived from the Old English word "leah," meaning "meadow" or "clearing."
While the name Loralee does not appear to have any significant historical references or mentions in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it gained popularity as a given name in the early 20th century. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Loralee was in 1905, when Loralee Frye was born in Missouri, United States.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Loralee. Loralee Brooks (1942-2001) was an American actress and singer who appeared in various television shows and films in the 1960s and 1970s. Loralee Cooley (born 1942) is an American former professional baseball player who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1960s.
Loralee Czuchna (born 1961) is a Canadian former professional tennis player who represented Canada in various international tournaments in the 1980s. Loralee Hunsacker (born 1942) is an American former basketball player who played for the All-American Red Heads team in the 1960s. Loralee Petersen (1971-2008) was a South African singer and songwriter who gained popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s.
People
Loralee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Loralee 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
Loralee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Loralee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,284 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Loralee 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 266,943 US residents.
Is Loralee a common name?
We classify Loralee as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,799 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Loralee most popular?
The single biggest year for Loralee was 1938, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Loralee is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Loralee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,700 people with the name Loralee, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,524 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 Loralee 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 Loralee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loralee appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,695 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Loralee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loralee is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.2%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Loralee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Loralee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (1,553 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 Loralee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Loralee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Loralee 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 Loralee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Loralee 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 Loralee 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 Americans are named Loralee?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.