Where did the baby name Loleatta come from in 1977?

Loleatta Holloway album "Loleatta," released in Jan. 1977.
Loleatta Holloway album

The rare name Loleatta has emerged just once in the U.S. baby name data, in the late 1970s:

  • 1979: unlisted
  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: 5 baby girls named Loleatta [debut]
  • 1976: unlisted
  • 1975: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Disco singer Loleatta Holloway (whose first name is pronounced like “Lolita”). She’d been putting out music since the early ’70s, but her first big hits — “Dreamin’,” “Hit and Run,” and “Ripped Off” — each reached the #3 position on the U.S. dance charts during 1977.

She scored her first #1 dance hit a few years later with “Love Sensation” (1980), which was later memorably sampled on another #1 hit, “Good Vibrations” (1991) by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

What are your thoughts on the name Loleatta?

Source: Loleatta Holloway – Wikipedia

2 thoughts on “Where did the baby name Loleatta come from in 1977?

  1. I tried to find the names of her own children, curious whether she (and her husband Floyd Smith) gave their children such special names as well. Looks like their names are Rosa Marie and Floyd (there’s another son who I think is named Theodore and another son whose name I couldn’t find).

    Interestingly, Loleatta and Floyd’s children all carry their mother’s last name. Their granddaughter Nia (younger Floyd’s daughter), who played Nala in The Lion King for years, is a Holloway too. Maybe they thought Smith – especially combined with their first names – sounded too common?

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