Lola

Meaning and origin

Lola is best known as a Spanish familiar form of Dolores, meaning “sorrows.” Dolores comes from the Marian title Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, “Our Lady of Sorrows.” Lola gives that longer devotional name a short, two-syllable form.

The connection is visible in the lives of people who used Lola publicly while bearing Dolores as their longer name. Over time, Lola also became well established as a complete given name in Spanish, English, and French.

There is a separate Uzbek Lola, meaning “tulip.” That name comes from a flower word with a Persian history, transmitted through Chagatai. Its botanical origin is independent of the Spanish Dolores tradition, giving the same spelling a different meaning in Central Asia.

Pronunciation and related names

English Lola is pronounced LOH-luh, with two syllables and the stress on the first. Spanish pronunciation is closer to LOH-lah, with a clearer final a. French also uses two syllables, with its own shorter o sound.

Dolores is the longer Spanish name behind Lola. Related forms include Catalan Dolors, Portuguese and Galician Dores, and Italian Addolorata. These belong to the devotional family rather than the independent Uzbek flower name.

The repeated l sound is one of Lola’s most distinctive features. Its short structure gives it a very different rhythm from Dolores while keeping an established connection with that name.

Lola Álvarez Bravo and photography

Mexican photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo is a particularly clear example of the Dolores connection. Born Dolores Martínez in Jalisco, she became known professionally as Lola and built a career across photography, teaching, and gallery work.

Álvarez Bravo, who lived from 1903 to 1993, photographed everyday life in Mexico. She often observed people at work, in marketplaces, or on the street, waiting for an informal moment rather than arranging a posed scene.

Her photographs combined close attention to people with strong compositions and contrasts of light and shadow. She also worked as a photojournalist, commercial photographer, and portraitist, while keeping a group of personal photographs she regarded as especially important to her art.

The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona acquired her archive in 1996. Her career gives Lola a substantial artistic association and shows the familiar form functioning as a recognized professional name.

Popularity in the United States

Lola reached its best American rank for girls, number 99, in 1904. Its largest annual count came in 1919, with 1,617 births.

The name has remained in use across more than a century. It ranked number 224 in 2015, number 237 in 2020, and number 275 in 2025. Its American history therefore includes both an early-twentieth-century peak and a continuing modern presence.

How popular is Lola?

In 2025, Lola ranked #275 among girls in the United States, with 1,132 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,617 in 1919. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.