Dolores
- Pronunciation
- [Do-lo-res]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Sorrows. A Reference To The Virgin Mary As Mary Of The Sorrows.
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Dolores
Dolores is a Spanish devotional name derived from the phrase Nuestra Señora de los Dolores — "Our Lady of Sorrows" — a title of the Virgin Mary commemorating her seven sorrows. The underlying Latin dolor means "pain" or "grief," but within Catholic naming tradition the name carries a quality of spiritual depth and compassionate endurance rather than simple sadness. It spread through Spanish-speaking communities worldwide as both a devotional gesture and a given name of great lyrical beauty.
In the United States, Dolores first entered the Social Security top-1000 in 1923, reflecting the growing influence of Hispanic Catholic naming traditions on the broader American register. It reached a national peak of #13 in 1930, a moment when Spanish-origin names enjoyed heightened fashion among non-Hispanic American families as well as within immigrant communities. The name exited the top-1000 in 1944 at rank #92, capping a two-decade run at meaningful national frequency.
Dolores remains a name of melodic elegance — three flowing syllables with a distinctive Spanish cadence — and it has never disappeared from use even outside the top-1000 charts. Its rich variant family is among the most extensive in the Spanish naming tradition: Delora, Delores, Deloris, Dolorita, and the informal shortenings Dolly, Lola, and Lolita all appear as recorded forms.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Dolores
US Popularity History (1923–1944)
Annual US births named Dolores by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1930 with 12,842 girls named Dolores (girl rank #13 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1944, ranked #92 for girls (3,081 US births). That's 79 places below its 1930 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delora | Variant Of Dolores Meaning Sorrows. | Female | English |
| Delores | Variant Of Dolores Meaning Sorrows. | Female | English |
| Deloris | Variant Of Dolores Meaning Sorrows. | Female | English |
| Dolly | Variant Of The Greek Dorothy Meaning Gift Of God. | Female | English |
| Dolorita | Full Of Sorrows | Female | Spanish |
| Lola | Feminine Form Of Carlos Manly: Abbreviation Of Dolores Full Of Sorrows. | Female | Spanish |
| Lolita | Feminine Form Of Carlos Manly | Female | Spanish |
Looking for names like Dolores?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Dolores to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Dolores against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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