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Girl · German (place name)
Lorelei
Say it: LOR-uh-ly
Meaning
A literary name from the Lorelei rock on the Rhine; the rock's name is often explained from dialect lur 'murmur' and lei 'rock', but this is uncertain.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Clemens Brentano and Heinrich Heine turned the rock into a siren figure in the 19th century, and the name has been used for girls in America since the 20th.
Its wave through time
Popular now
In the United States
- 14,740 babies given this name since 1916
- At its height in 2019, about 1 in 2,500 girls
- 594 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Loreley, Lorelai
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.