Lorelei
A German feminine name referring to a siren or Rhine maiden.
Name Census estimates that about 15,951 living Americans carry the first name Lorelei. It sits at #456 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lorelei today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lorelei births was 2016 (716 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lorelei. 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 Lorelei with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,488 Americans
Peak year
2016
716 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#456
Tracked since 1916
Census
Lorelei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,116 people with the first name Lorelei, which placed it at #2,074 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
#2,074
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,116 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lorelei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorelei is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Lorelei 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 Lorelei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.5% · 10,426
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 1,181
- Two or more races5.8% · 767
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 484
- Black or African American1.2% · 163
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 95
Popularity
Lorelei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lorelei from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,407 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lorelei remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lorelei 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 Lorelei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Loreleis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Lorelei, while South Dakota, District of Columbia, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 300 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lorelei
The name Lorelei originates from the Germanic languages and is derived from the combination of the words "lore" meaning "murmur" or "luring song" and "lei" meaning "rock". It is associated with a legendary rock formation along the Rhine River in Germany, known as the Lorelei Rock.
The first recorded use of the name can be traced back to the medieval legend of a beautiful maiden named Lorelei who was abandoned by her lover. Heartbroken, she threw herself into the Rhine River and was transformed into a siren whose enchanting songs lured sailors to their deaths on the treacherous rocks. This legend was popularized in the 19th century by the German writer Clemens Brentano and the poet Heinrich Heine.
One of the earliest notable bearers of the name Lorelei was Lorelei Gilmore, a character in the American television series Gilmore Girls, which aired from 2000 to 2007. The name gained popularity after the show's success.
In literary history, Lorelei was the title character in the novel Lorelei by Zane Grey, published in 1915. The novel is set in the American West and follows the adventures of a young woman named Lorelei.
In music, Lorelei is the name of a character in the opera "The Pirates of Penzance" by Gilbert and Sullivan, first performed in 1879. The character is a beautiful but conniving young woman who tricks the pirates into freeing her.
Another notable bearer of the name Lorelei was Lorelei Redding, the daughter of the legendary American singer-songwriter Otis Redding. Born in 1967, she is a musician and songwriter in her own right and has released several albums.
While the name Lorelei has its roots in German folklore, it has gained popularity in various cultures around the world, particularly in the English-speaking world, due to its unique and intriguing sound and association with the captivating legend.
People
Lorelei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lorelei 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
Lorelei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lorelei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,951 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lorelei 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 21,488 US residents.
Is Lorelei a common name?
We classify Lorelei as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17,482 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lorelei most popular?
The single biggest year for Lorelei was 2016, when 716 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lorelei is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lorelei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,116 people with the name Lorelei, or 4.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,074 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 Lorelei 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 Lorelei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lorelei appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,113 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Lorelei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorelei is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.8%). 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 Lorelei most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lorelei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.5% (10,426 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 Lorelei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lorelei a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lorelei 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 Lorelei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lorelei 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 Lorelei 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 Lorelei?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.