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New German name
Loreley is the name of a rock at the edge of the Rhine near Koblenz. In the 19th century, first Clemens Brentano and later Heinrich Heine wrote poems about a legend based on a romantic reinterpretation of its name as a female first name (due to its resemblance to the name Lore: The siren Loreley lives on the rock and unwittingly lures boatmen to their death by combing her long blonde hair and singing. [1] [2])
The second part of the place name ley derives from a Celtic word meaning 'rock, cliff', the first part is of unknown origin and meaning. Theories include
1) Middle High German luren = 'to lure, to lie in wait'
2) Middle High German lorren, lurren = 'to cry, to shout'
3) Rhine dialect lureln = 'to murmur'
Lorelai | ♀ |
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Lorelay | ♀ |
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Lorelei | ♀ |
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Loreley | ♀ |
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Lóreley | ♀ |
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The German pronunciation of Loreley can be found on our sister site www.germannames.de. |
Country | Commonness
Commonness | Total | Female ♀ | Male ♂ | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| as main name# | also middle name& | as main name# | also middle name& | as main name# | also middle name& | |
Sweden[3] |
|
5 | 13 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
Finland[4] |
|
n.a. |
8 | n.a. |
8 | 0 | 0 |
Iceland[5] |
|
3 | 3 | n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
Denmark[6] |
|
0 | n.a. |
0 | n.a. |
0 | n.a. |
Norway[7] |
|
0 | n.a. |
0 | n.a. |
0 | n.a. |
Greenland[8] |
|
0 | 0 | n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
n.a. |
#: count of main first name only | |||||||
&: count of both main and additional first names | |||||||
Name counts are approximate as statistics normally is not published for names given to less than 3 or 5 persons per country. |
No recent statistics trend found in databases for Loreley.