Loretta
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A female given name from Latin, variant of Lauretta, Italian diminutive of Laura; or a form of Loreto
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ləɹɛtə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Loretta is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Jamaica it is the 25th most common given name.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 1.6K(inferred from the name graph)
- GRGreece≈1 in 2K
- IEIreland≈1 in 2.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Loretta itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 491 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.6K (inferred from the name graph)
≈610,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Jamaica, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Loreta in PH Philippines, LT Lithuania, LV Latvia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A female given name from Latin, variant of Lauretta, Italian diminutive of Laura; or a form of Loreto.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Loretta counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈610,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Loretta | 19 |
| US United States | #397 | 91,196 | 1 in 3.6K | 91K | Loretta | 491 |
| PH Philippines | #582 | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.1K | 26K | Loreta | 56 |
| IT Italy | #624 | ≈23,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.8K | 1 | Loretta | 97 |
| GB United Kingdom | #473 | ≈21,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.2K | 3 | Loretta | 178 |
| LT Lithuania | #100 | ≈6,500 est. | ≈1 in 419 | listed | Loreta | 87 |
| GR Greece | #393 | ≈5,300 est. | ≈1 in 2K | 1 | Loretta | 26 |
| IE Ireland | #237 | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | — | Loretta | 60 |
| JM Jamaica | #25 | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 1.6K | — | Loretta | 8 |
| LV Latvia | — | 1,279as Loreta | 1 in 1.5K | 1.3K | Loreta | 31 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Top 500 First Names in the Philippines (PSA FOI response, tracking; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); the lt-vlkk-vardai register; Διαύγεια — directory of signing officials (organization → signers); PMLP — Personu vārdi (given names in population register); PMLP — Personvārdu meklētājs (per-name population-register lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Loretta is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, weibl. Vom., italienische Koseform von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
variant of Loreto.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
English: variant of LAURETTA , normally borne by Catholics, among whom it is associated with LORETO .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Loretta Youngb. 1913USAmerican actress (1913–2000)
- Loretta Lynnb. 1932USAmerican country singer (1932–2022)
- Loretta Switb. 1937USAmerican actress (1937–2025)
- Loretta Longb. 1938USAmerican actress
- Loretta Devineb. 1949USAmerican actress
- Loretta Goggib. 1950ITItalian actress and singer
- Mary Landrieub. 1955USnot in their usual nameUnited States Senator from Louisiana
- Loretta Lynchb. 1959USAmerican attorney (born 1959)
- Loretta Sanchezb. 1960USAmerican politician (born 1960)
- Loretta Harropb. 1975AUtriathlete
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 78 sources across 44 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 91K | #583 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 485 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 90 | #583 |
| LV Latvia | PMLP — Personu vārdi (given names in population register) | — | 6 | — |
| LV Latvia | PMLP — Personvārdu meklētājs (per-name population-register lookup) | — | 6 | #6,777 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1981 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 3 | #790 |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 1 | #15,753 |
| LT Lithuania | VLKK — Lietuvos Respublikos piliečių vardų sąvadas (recommended names) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Loretta mean, and where does it come from?
- A female given name from Latin, variant of Lauretta, Italian diminutive of Laura; or a form of Loreto. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Loretta?
- In the etymology graph, Laura, Lori and Laurie are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Lora.
- Is Loretta a male or female name?
- Loretta is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Loretta?
- In the United States, the national register counted 91,196 people named Loretta in 2020, about 1 in 3.6 thousand residents.
- How common is Loretta compared with other names?
- In Jamaica, Loretta is the 25th most common given name of 21,568 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Loretta?
- A machine transcription gives /ləɹɛtə/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Loretta have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 607 thousand people named Loretta in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled loretta.
What do you want to know about Loretta?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/lorettaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Loretta” — the 25th most common given name in Jamaica. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.