The name Lerin first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1980:
- 1990: 7 baby girls named Lerin
- 1989: 9 baby girls named Lerin
- 1988: 11 baby girls named Lerin
- 1987: unlisted
- 1986: 17 baby girls named Lerin
- 1985: 12 baby girls named Lerin
- 1984: 9 baby girls named Lerin
- 1983: 22 baby girls named Lerin
- 1982: 33 baby girls named Lerin
- 1981: 35 baby girls named Lerin
- 1980: 35 baby girls named Lerin [debut]
- 1979: unlisted
- 1978: unlisted
It was one of the top baby name debuts of the year, in fact.
It also appeared in the data a boy name from 1979 to 1982.
Where did it come from?
It took me a while to figure out that the baby name Lerin — which people often write L’erin or L’Erin — was inspired by the cosmetics brand L’erin.
L’erin was created by the Hanes company in the late ’70s. Hanes had made a big profit that decade from L’eggs hosiery, and it hoped that a line of cosmetics — similarly named and marketed — would achieve the same success.
Hanes was acquired by Sara Lee in early 1979, and Sara Lee put millions into launching and promoting L’erin in the early ’80s. (Here’s a TV commercial for L’erin.) Despite this, “L’erin failed to catch on with consumers. As Hanes and Sara Lee soon discovered, cosmetics were part of the fashion industry, not a consumer product.”
Sara Lee sold L’erin in 1982. The brand was eventually discontinued.
But people with the name are still around, of course. For example, a woman named L’Erin Stortz who works in a Denver salon says “she was destined to work in the beauty industry” because of her name.
Do you know anyone named L’Erin?
Sources:
- Derdak, Thomas and Tina Gant. International Directory of Company Histories: Volume 98. Farmington Hills, Michigan: St James Press, 2008.
- Our Timeline – Sara Lee Corporation
- SSA