Loma
A feminine name of unknown origin, possibly derived from Spanish loma meaning "hill".
Name Census estimates that about 452 living Americans carry the first name Loma. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Loma today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Loma births was 1921 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Loma. 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 Loma is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lomas were born before 1961.
People living today
452
~ 1 in 758,306 Americans
Peak year
1921
74 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
1935 SSA rank
#3,950
Tracked since 1880
Census
Loma in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 850 people with the first name Loma, which placed it at #13,996 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
#13,996
National first-name rank
People counted
850
850 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Loma
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loma is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Loma 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 Loma at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.9% · 645
- Black or African American10.8% · 92
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 48
- Two or more races4.1% · 35
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Loma
Out of the 2,294 babies given the name Loma since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Loma as a male name
- Ranked #3,950 in 1935
- 5 male births in 1935
- Peak: 1935 (5 births)
Loma as a female name
- Ranked #16,612 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1921 (74 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loma leans strongly female. 805 people counted with this name were female (95.2%), compared with 41 male bearers (4.8%).
Popularity
Loma: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Loma from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 532 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
Loma 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 Loma during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lomas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Loma, while Nebraska, North Carolina, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Loma
The name Loma is believed to have originated from the Quechua language, spoken by the indigenous people of the Andean regions of South America. Quechua was the primary language of the Inca Empire, which spanned across modern-day Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and parts of Chile and Colombia from the 13th to the 16th century.
In Quechua, the word "loma" refers to a small hill or a gentle slope. It is possible that the name Loma was initially used to describe someone who lived near or on a hill, or perhaps to denote a person's physical stature or demeanor. The name may have also been derived from the Spanish word "loma," which shares the same meaning and was likely influenced by the Quechua language during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Loma can be found in the chronicles of Spanish conquistadors who explored and conquered the Inca Empire in the 16th century. It is possible that the name was used to refer to indigenous individuals or places encountered during these expeditions.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Loma. One such person was Loma Larga, a 16th-century Peruvian leader who resisted the Spanish conquest and fought against the conquistador Francisco Pizarro's forces in the defense of the Inca Empire.
Another prominent figure was Loma Nazaren, a 19th-century Native American woman from the Apache tribe, who was known for her skills as a healer and midwife in the southwestern United States.
In the 20th century, Loma Frey (1912-1997) was an American actress and dancer who performed in Broadway musicals and Hollywood films during the 1940s and 1950s.
Loma Norma Dunton (1907-1998), an American botanist, made significant contributions to the study of plant taxonomy and was recognized for her work on the flora of the southwestern United States.
Loma Secca (1936-2011) was a renowned Italian actress and singer who gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s for her performances in various Italian films and television shows.
People
Loma + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Loma 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
Loma: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Loma?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 452 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Loma 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 758,306 US residents.
Is Loma a common name?
We classify Loma as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,294 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Loma most popular?
The single biggest year for Loma was 1921, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Loma is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Loma in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 850 people with the name Loma, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,996 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 Loma 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 Loma?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Loma leans strongly female. 805 people counted with this name were female (95.2%), compared with 41 male bearers (4.8%). 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 Loma?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Loma is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%). 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 Loma most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Loma in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.9% (645 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 Loma in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Loma a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Loma 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 Loma still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Loma 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 Loma 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 Loma?
Want to know how many Americans are named Loma? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.