Name Awesome

Loreto

Boys' name

Egyptian rue (Ruta angustifolia), through laurus

Loreto has been given to 515 babies in the U.S. since 1915. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1923, with 14 recorded.

Babies named Loreto, 2023

1 in 368,000

Loreto over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Loreto: meaning, origin, and history

Egyptian rue (Ruta angustifolia), through laurus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Loreto means

Loreto belongs to the name family reached through Loreto → Loreto → laurus → laura. Its meaning is “Egyptian rue (Ruta angustifolia)”.

Origin, language, and formation

Loreto is used in Cebuano and Spanish.

Loreto comes through Spanish Loreto.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Loreto, laurus and laura.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Cebuano, Loreto is pronounced /loˈɾeto/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 494 boys were recorded with the name Loreto between 1915 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 14 in 1923; its best national rank was #2,153 in 1929.

In the United States, 21 girls were recorded with the name Loreto between 1924 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1972; its best national rank was #5,536 in 1924.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Loreto?

Loreto had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 190,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
255,294 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Loreto sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 255,294 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Loreto. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Loretos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Loreto was born before 1974 — so the typical Loreto is around 51 today.

Median birth year
1974
About 51 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
18.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
21.1%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
313
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 18.0% of all recorded uses (89).

Is Loreto rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1923 (14)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,153
1929

Spellings of Loreto

Loreto is not the most common spelling — Lorenzo is, with 63.5% against Loreto's 0.37%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Loreto is used

Across 1910–2025, Loreto was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,089,544 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Loreto has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Loreto around the world

Where Loreto ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1959–1980
    #422
    in 1980

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Loreto by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,153
1929
Peak year
1923
14 that year
First recorded
1915
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
494
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,536
1924
Peak year
1972
6 that year
First recorded
1924
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
21
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Loreto

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

LorcanLorenceLorenzLorrenLorikLordLorettaAnicetoLorenaLorrinLorainLorisLorensoLoringLoraineLorienLoreneLorasLorianLorryLorneLorrieLorrisLorance

Sibling names for Loreto

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Loreto

Top names of 1923, Loreto's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1929Boys' names starting with L