Lorayne
A feminine name derived from the French lauraine, meaning a little laurel.
Name Census estimates that about 273 living Americans carry the first name Lorayne. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lorayne today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lorayne births was 1922 (64 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lorayne. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Lorayne is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Loraynes were born before 1969.
People living today
273
~ 1 in 1,255,510 Americans
Peak year
1922
64 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2022 SSA rank
#16,718
Tracked since 1903
Census
Lorayne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 529 people with the first name Lorayne, which placed it at #19,808 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
#19,808
National first-name rank
People counted
529
529 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lorayne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorayne is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.0%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Lorayne 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 Lorayne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.8% · 380
- Hispanic or Latino18.0% · 95
- Black or African American4.9% · 26
- Two or more races3.2% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
Popularity
Lorayne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lorayne from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 434 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
Lorayne 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 Lorayne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Loraynes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Lorayne, while Missouri, Texas, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lorayne
The name Lorayne is a variation of the French name Lorraine, which originated from the region of Lorraine in northeastern France. The name Lorraine itself is derived from the Germanic word "Lothringen," meaning "the kingdom of Lothar." This refers to the historical kingdom of Lotharingia, which was named after King Lothair II, who ruled the region in the 9th century.
The earliest recorded use of the name Lorayne dates back to the late 19th century, although it was relatively uncommon until the mid-20th century. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Lorayne Braley, an American actress born in 1895, who appeared in several silent films during the 1920s.
In literature, the name Lorayne was used for a character in the 1942 novel "The Seventh Cross" by Anna Seghers, set during the rise of Nazism in Germany. This helped to popularize the name in the United States and other English-speaking countries.
One of the most famous individuals named Lorayne was Lorayne Tufeld, better known as Lorayne Brox, an American singer and actress born in 1953. She gained fame as a member of the pop group The Lollipop Guild in the 1960s and later pursued a successful acting career.
Another notable Lorayne was Lorayne Loring, an American actress born in 1924, who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout the mid-20th century, including roles in "The Girl Can't Help It" (1956) and "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962).
In the field of magic and mentalism, Lorayne was the stage name of Harry Lorayne, an American memory expert and magician born in 1926. He authored numerous books on memory techniques and was renowned for his exceptional memory demonstrations and card magic routines.
While the name Lorayne has never been among the most popular given names, it has a rich history dating back to the medieval period and has been borne by notable individuals in various fields, including entertainment, literature, and magic.
People
Lorayne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lorayne 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
Lorayne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lorayne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 273 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lorayne 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 1,255,510 US residents.
Is Lorayne a common name?
We classify Lorayne as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,157 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lorayne most popular?
The single biggest year for Lorayne was 1922, when 64 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lorayne is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lorayne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 529 people with the name Lorayne, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,808 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 Lorayne 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 Lorayne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lorayne appears almost entirely female. Of the 529 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Lorayne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorayne is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.0%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Lorayne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lorayne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (380 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 Lorayne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lorayne a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lorayne 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 Lorayne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lorayne 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 Lorayne 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 Lorayne?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.