Entry № 6025 · French origin

Lorraine Lorraine — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ loh-RAYN /
Gender
Girl
Origin
French
Meaning
"From Lorraine (Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun)"
Syllables
2
Rank · US 2025
№ 800
First recorded
Medieval (French)

A name that means "from lorraine (lorraine hansberry, a raisin in the sun)".

Lorraine is from the historical French province of Lorraine — itself from the medieval Latin Lotharingia, the kingdom of Lothair II established 855 CE. Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) — *African American playwright whose A Raisin in the Sun (1959) — written when she was 28 — became the first play by a Black woman ever produced on Broadway and the first Broadway play directed by a Black director (Lloyd Richards). Won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play (1959), beating works by Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, and Archibald MacLeish — the youngest American and first Black writer to win the prize. The play's title is from Langston Hughes's poem Harlem: "What happens to a dream deferred?". Died of pancreatic cancer at 34. A top-100 US baby name from 1933 to 1957*.

Subject of Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (2017 PBS American Masters documentary).

From Lorraine. First Black-woman-authored play on Broadway; she won the Drama Critics' Circle Award at 28.

The name in its native script.

Lorraine
Transliteration
Lorraine
Pronunciation
/ ləˈreɪn /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Lorraine stands.

Current rank · 2025
№ 800 in the U.S.
All-time peak
№ 51 in 1933
Babies named Lorraine · last year
340 in the U.S.
First entered SSA top-1000
1880
Rank, 1995–2025 Lower = more popular
№25 №75 №150 №250 1995 2005 2015 2020 2025 PEAK · #51 NOW · #800

Lorraines before her.

Real people
Lorraine Hansberry
American playwright.
1930 – 1965
Lorraine Bracco
American actress (The Sopranos).
born 1954
In fiction
Lorraine Baines
Back to the Future.
1985

Names connected to Lorraine.

The number behind Lorraine.

2

The Peacemaker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Lorraine reduce to 2, The Peacemaker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.