Lola carries 95,745 cumulative American girls on SSA record and currently sits at rank 273, with a 1919 peak that placed her well inside the top 100 during the early 20th century. The chart traces a long arc: a strong Edwardian heyday, a midcentury fade, near-disappearance from the 1950s through the 1980s, and a vigorous 21st-century revival that has held the name in the top 300 since 2009.
The Spanish short-form
Lola is a traditional Spanish short form of Dolores, itself derived from the Spanish phrase Maria de los Dolores (Mary of Sorrows), referring to the Catholic devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary. The chain runs back to the Latin dolor (pain, sorrow) and arrived in English-speaking America primarily through Hispanic Catholic naming tradition in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The name's English-language register diverges sharply from its devotional Spanish roots. The 1846 scandal of Lola Montez, an Irish-born dancer who became mistress to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, gave the name a bohemian and slightly disreputable flavor in 19th-century English use that lingered for decades.
The pop-culture archive
Few names carry as many distinct pop-culture anchors. The 1955 musical Damn Yankees gave us "Whatever Lola Wants," the 1970 Kinks song "Lola" cemented the name as gender-bending pop shorthand, and the 1998 German film Run Lola Run added a 21st-century cinema reference. Each generation has its own Lola.
The modern American revival began around 2000 alongside the broader vintage-girl-name comeback that brought back Stella, Ruby, Hazel, and Ivy. Two syllables, palindromic structure, and a confident O-vowel give Lola a distinctive, slightly retro-cabaret sound. Browse the broader Spanish girl names set.
The counter-reading
The Lola Montez association and Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita have left a lingering register that some adults still hear. The bearer will encounter the cultural baggage occasionally, particularly from older readers, and parents drawn to the name should be comfortable owning the slightly bold register rather than apologizing for it.
Sibling pairings work across the vintage-revival cluster: Lola and Stella, Lola and Ruby, Lola and Pearl, Lola and Hazel. Middle names tend traditional and slightly longer to balance the brisk two-syllable first: Lola Jane, Lola Rose, Lola Catherine, Lola Elizabeth, Lola Marie. See where she sits on current SSA rankings.