Humanverse

Loriann vs Lorraine

American parents have registered 210,845 Lorraines since 1880, against 3,785 Lorianns. Lorraine is still ahead, with 238 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Loriann against Lorraine, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Loriann Lorraine

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Lorraine has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2010, when Loriann had 19 and Lorraine had 82.

Side by side

  Loriann Lorraine
Total US births 3,785210,845
Most in one year 2396,005
Babies in 2025 12238
Estimated living today 3,50092,000
Median age today 5569
Peak year 19631928
Best rank 655th girls39th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362nd1,043rd
First recorded 19541882
Girls / boys 3,785 / 0209,910 / 935

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lorraines alive today are over 69; half the Lorianns are over 55. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Loriann and Lorraine.