Lorilei
A blend of Lori or Laurie and Leigh or Leah, potentially meaning "laurel" or "crown".
Name Census estimates that about 244 living Americans carry the first name Lorilei. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lorilei today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lorilei births was 1968 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lorilei. 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
244
~ 1 in 1,404,731 Americans
Peak year
1968
13 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,489
Tracked since 1954
Census
Lorilei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 316 people with the first name Lorilei, which placed it at #28,429 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
#28,429
National first-name rank
People counted
316
316 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lorilei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorilei is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Lorilei 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 Lorilei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.4% · 232
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.5% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 22
- Two or more races6.6% · 21
- Black or African American2.5% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 6
Popularity
Lorilei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lorilei from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 65 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
Lorilei 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 Lorilei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lorileis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Lorilei
The name Lorilei likely finds its origins in the German legend of the Lorelei, a beautiful but dangerous siren who lured sailors to their deaths with her enchanting song. The legend is centered around a massive rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine River near the town of St. Goarshausen.
The name itself is a combination of the German words "Lore" meaning "alluring" and "Lei" meaning "rock." The earliest recorded use of the name Lorelei dates back to the beginning of the 19th century when the German poet Clemens Brentano included the legend in his romantic novella "Godwi" published in 1801.
One of the earliest known Lorileis was Lorilei Reichert, a German opera singer born in 1835. She performed extensively throughout Europe in the mid-19th century. Another notable Lorilei was Lorilei Gillmore, an American actress born in 1905 who appeared in numerous Broadway productions and films in the 1920s and 1930s.
Lorilei Wilson, born in 1924, was an American actress and dancer known for her roles in several musicals and films during the 1940s and 1950s, including "On the Town" and "Kiss Me Kate." Lorilei King, born in 1954, is an American actress and voice artist who has provided voice work for numerous animated series and video games.
More recently, Lorilei Williams, born in 1971, is a Canadian actress and singer who has appeared in several television shows and films, including "The Butterfly Effect" and "Saw III." While not an extremely common name, Lorilei has maintained a presence throughout history, reflecting its origins in German folklore and literature.
People
Lorilei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lorilei 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
Lorilei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lorilei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 244 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lorilei 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 1,404,731 US residents.
Is Lorilei a common name?
We classify Lorilei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 270 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lorilei most popular?
The single biggest year for Lorilei was 1968, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lorilei is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lorilei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 316 people with the name Lorilei, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,429 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 Lorilei 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 Lorilei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lorilei appears almost entirely female. Of the 319 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Lorilei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorilei is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Lorilei most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lorilei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.4% (232 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 Lorilei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lorilei a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lorilei 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 Lorilei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lorilei 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 Lorilei 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 are called Lorilei?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.