Lola

LOH-luh

The name Lola originated as a Spanish diminutive of Dolores, itself drawn from the Marian title María de los Dolores (“Mary of the Sorrows”), a reference to the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary in Catholic devotion.

US Rank

No. 273

Births

1,155

Peak Year

1904

The Latin root is dolor (“pain, grief”), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *delh- meaning “to split, to hew.” Although the devotional name carries a somber meaning, the diminutive Lola developed its own character in Spain and Latin America

as a warm, everyday hypocorism by the 18th century.

What the name Lola means

The name achieved international fame through Lola Montez (1821-1861), born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, a dancer and adventuress whose affair with King Ludwig I of Bavaria contributed to the revolutionary upheavals of 1848.

Her notoriety swept through European salons and the American gold-rush circuit, making Lola 1 of the earliest single-name celebrities in modern media. Her story inspired Max Ophüls’s film Lola Montès in 1955.

Literature and music multiplied the name’s associations.

Pietro Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria rusticana (1890) features Lola as the faithless rival, while Damn Yankees’ “Whatever Lola Wants” (1955) and The Kinks’ “Lola” (1970) carried the name into popular music.

Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) complicated matters by using the diminutive for his young protagonist Dolores Haze, though the standalone form Lola remained largely uncoupled from that shadow.

Across the United States, Lola appeared in the SSA top 200 from 1880 through the 1920s, then fell out of the top 1000 entirely between 1981 and 2001.

The revival since 2002 has been 1 of the most dramatic of any vintage American name, with Lola climbing steadily back into the top 250. The name is also firmly established in Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Contemporary bearers include American actress Lola Glaudini, Australian singer Lola Brooke, and the daughters of celebrities including Denise Richards and Chris Rock.