Lorinda
A feminine name of English origin, a combination of Lora and Linda.
Name Census estimates that about 3,530 living Americans carry the first name Lorinda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lorinda today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lorinda births was 1965 (168 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lorinda. 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
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,098 Americans
Peak year
1965
168 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,905
Tracked since 1886
Census
Lorinda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,963 people with the first name Lorinda, which placed it at #4,630 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
#4,630
National first-name rank
People counted
4.0K
3,963 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lorinda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorinda is White at 76.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Lorinda 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 Lorinda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.3% · 3,024
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 319
- Black or African American6.6% · 260
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 129
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 124
- Two or more races2.7% · 107
Popularity
Lorinda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lorinda from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,443 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
Lorinda 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 Lorinda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lorindas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Lorinda, while Wisconsin, Utah, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lorinda
Lorinda is a feminine given name derived from the Late Latin name Laurinda, which itself is a blend of the Latin names Laurentius and Laurentia. The Latin name Laurentius was derived from the name Laurentum, an ancient town of Latium, whose name meant "the town of laurels." The laurel was a plant revered in ancient Rome and associated with honor, victory, and poetry.
The name Lorinda can be traced back to the early medieval period, when it was used in various regions of Europe influenced by Latin and Romance languages. It was particularly popular in Italy and parts of Spain during this time. The earliest recorded use of the name Lorinda dates back to the 9th century AD, found in Italian monastic records.
In the 12th century, Lorinda was the name of a nun and abbess of the Monastery of San Benedetto in Gubbio, Italy. Her life and works were documented in the "Vita Laurindae Abbatissae" (Life of Abbess Lorinda), written by a monk named Peter.
During the Renaissance, Lorinda was a name used among the Italian nobility. One notable figure was Lorinda Salviati (1539-1584), a member of the influential Salviati family of Florence and the wife of Jacopo Salviati, a prominent banker and patron of the arts.
In the 17th century, Lorinda was the name of a character in the pastoral play "The Faithful Shepherdess" by John Fletcher, published in 1609. This literary reference helped popularize the name in England during that period.
Another historical figure with the name Lorinda was Lorinda Pearl (1888-1944), an American artist and printmaker known for her etchings and woodcuts depicting scenes of rural life in the American Midwest.
Despite its long history, the name Lorinda has never been widely popular in modern times. However, it has maintained a modest presence, particularly in Italy and parts of the United States.
People
Lorinda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lorinda 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
Lorinda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lorinda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,530 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lorinda 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 97,098 US residents.
Is Lorinda a common name?
We classify Lorinda as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,676 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lorinda most popular?
The single biggest year for Lorinda was 1965, when 168 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lorinda is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lorinda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,963 people with the name Lorinda, or 1.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,630 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 Lorinda 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 Lorinda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lorinda appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,957 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Lorinda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lorinda is White at 76.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Black (6.6%). 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 Lorinda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lorinda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.3% (3,024 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 Lorinda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lorinda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lorinda 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 Lorinda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lorinda 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 Lorinda 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 Lorinda?
You can see how many Americans are named Lorinda on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.