An Almost-Complete History of Every Lauren on 'The Bachelor'

“I’m Lauren, and I know you just met another Lauren.” This is the incredibly low-energy way Lauren Griffin (“Lauren G.”) introduces herself to Arie Luyendyk Jr. on this season of The Bachelor. It’s a lame line, but I guess when you’re the fourth woman named Lauren to step out of the limo you don’t get a splashy moment like Bekah M.’s red convertible or Tia’s tiny weiner gift. The other non-Lauren contestants seemed just as unfazed. “I feel like it’s a good amount of Laurens,” Becca K. quipped. “Like, any more and I’d be like, ‘Am I on the wrong show?'”

To a first-time viewer the moment likely came across as a bit of stunt casting, but there’s a long-running joke among card-carrying members of Bachelor Nation that every contestant is named Lauren. This season just felt especially ridiculous because the four—most of them blonde—were reduced to initials (Lauren B., Lauren G. etc.) until, one-by-one, they were eliminated. Now, ahead of tonight’s finale, only one remains: The uninspiring Lauren B., who maybe-probably will win the exciting opportunity to move to Scottsdale, Arizona to be with a man who can be summed up as “failed race car driver.”

But is this Lauren Phenomenon grounded in any sort of reality? Turns out, yeah: Over the past 22 seasons, Lauren is the most popular name among Bachelor contestants. (Something I confirmed with cast lists provided by ABC.) There have been 15 total, and that’s not counting side-character Laurens like Lauren Iaconetti, Ashley I.’s sister who appeared briefly on Bachelor in Paradise before leaving to become a “mistress.” There are more Laurens than Ambers or Jessicas or even the various spellings of Ashley—Ashlee, Ashleigh, AshLee, etc.—all added together. There have been blonde Laurens and brunette Laurens, but only one Lauren of color because diversity continues to be an issue on this series.

I don’t have any data on whether or not being named Lauren makes you more likely to audition for The Bachelor, but statistically it seems likely. According to the Social Security Administration, the name has consistently been in the top 100 since 1978. It peaked in 1989, which lines up time-wise: Those Laurens are now around 28 years old, putting them close to the average age of a Bachelor contestant.

With so many Laurens embedded in the show’s history, it felt necessary to catalog them all for posterity. There were a few bumps along the way, which I’ll get into below, but here’s a (mostly) complete rundown.

Unfortunately, our first Lauren is a complete mystery. A cast list of Season 4 contestants provided by ABC confirms she was on the show in 2003, but there aren’t available images of her; back then the Internet wasn’t quite what it is today. Even attempts to find an available stream or digital download of the season came up empty. There are several age-appropriate women named Lauren Tuttle on social media and LinkedIn, but it’s further complicated by the fact that if she has since married and changed her name, there’s no way of tracking her down.

Maybe I could have found her if I had devoted a full 24 hours to the task. After all, the amount of sleuthing I did to find the other women on this list is truly unreal. I even briefly flirted with the idea of asking a private detective to help, but that felt like overstepping some invisible boundary for the sake of a Bachelor article. So, we’ll have to be content knowing there was a Lauren on Season 4 and that’s that.

Our next Lauren—Lauren W.—competed on Jason Mesnick’s season of The Bachelor in 2009 and had quite the resume going in: a 27-year-old (at the time) middle school teacher and former Ms. United States pageant winner with psoriasis. She also came in fresh (and I mean fresh) off a bad breakup, according to this nine-year-old video. “I was in a three-year relationship that ended in heartbreak for me, and I got right back up,” she says. “I gave myself a little time to heal, about a couple of weeks, and I signed up to do The Bachelor.” A couple weeks?! Damn, she was not wasting time.

Once Lauren W. was on the show, she was considered “one of the more outspoken Bachelorettes” until she was eliminated about halfway through the season in week four. These days she’s a real estate agent in Boca Raton, Florida with a couple of really cute kids.

We don’t know too much about Lauren M. because she was eliminated the first week of Brad Womack’s second go-around at The Bachelor. It’s probably for the best—even an entire article devoted to “What Is Brad Womack Doing in 2018?” couldn’t answer the question. (I’m not kidding: I don’t think that’s a headline; I think the writer is genuinely asking what he’s doing.)

Anyway, back to Lauren M.: In 2011, when she was on the show, she was a 26-year-old high school teacher from Virginia. After a lot of detective work—there are a lot of Lauren Moores in the world—I think I’ve tracked her down: She’s now a stay-at-home mom in Virginia. I reached out for confirmation, so stay tuned.

The second Lauren M. is also a bit of an enigma because she too was eliminated the first week of her season (17, when Sean Lowe was the Bachelor). She was 27 at the time, in 2013. Since then, she became a TV Broadcaster and got married last year.

Lauren H.’s time on The Bachelor was short lived—she was eliminated the first night—but it was certainly memorable. She spent the first cocktail ceremony in tears (like, a lot of tears). To be fair, I would cry too if the Bachelor was the notoriously empty-hearted Juan Pablo Galavis.

Later, Lauren H. blamed ABC for making her look like “an idiot” in the editing process, though she admits she probably wasn’t emotionally ready for the show considering her fiancé had dumped her five months prior. Today she keeps things much more low-key with a private Instagram account and a career as a business analyst.

Lauren S. was also on Juan Pablo’s season of The Bachelor, in 2014, but she stuck around a bit longer than Lauren H. After getting eliminated week four, she became a travel blogger. (Of course she’s a travel blogger; that is the most on-brand post-Bachelor career I’ve ever heard of.) You can follow along at thebrunettetravelette.com.

Ben Higgins’ season, which aired in 2016, had a record number of Laurens: four total. Lauren R., a Houston math teacher, was eliminated the first night. But based on her robust Instagram, she seems to be doing justtttt fine:

Season 20 of The Bachelor had so many Laurens that one even condensed her name down to just the initials: LB. She has a few notables about her: 23 years old at the time, she has the distinct honor of being the youngest Lauren of them all. She also quit the show in week two, making her the only Lauren to leave of her own accord.

The decision seems to have worked out: She recently moved to Nashville and took a trip to Disney World, so life is good.

Lauren H. lasted a little longer—until week six—which earned her enough Bachelor Nation recognition to score a spot on Season 3 of Bachelor in Paradise in 2016. She didn’t find love there either, but she keeps busy with a robust career as a realtor and as an Instagram influencer for #sponsored skinny tea posts. The dream! (For former Bach contestants, at least.)

Lauren B.! Best known as the winner of season 20 of The Bachelor and the only Lauren on this list to be given the final rose. The engagement with Ben Higgins didn’t last, though, and she’s now spending her days shilling Hidden Crown Hair Extensions and FabFitFun boxes on Instagram.

Perhaps scaling back from the Lauren overload of season 20, the next season only had one: Lauren Hussey. She left the first night, though, so we’ll never know if she could have found love with aspiring actor and January Jones BFF Nick Viall. She’s now—no joke, I promise—a hurricane lawyer. Don’t believe me? Here is a website and Instagram page that I’m telling you will eat up at least 20 minutes of your day.

The most current season of The Bachelor has tied with Ben Higgins’ for record number of Laurens: four total. Lauren Jarreau only lasted the first night, but she did make an impression by giving Arie a set of insanely large Mardi Gras beads:

No worries for Lauren J. She’s already moved on to a new boyfriend, whom she calls “the Best Gift I’ve been given.”

A week later, Lauren G. was eliminated by Arie. She scored a spot on Bachelor Winter Games shortly after, but left early from that as well. Check out her Instagram for a fun photo with all the Season 22 Laurens cheekily posing together. Meta!

Lauren S. didn’t last too long either, leaving the show after week three’s elimination. But I’d say she’s living her best life because she recently meet THE Jennifer Lopez (with fellow Season 22 contestant Bibiana).

That leaves us with our final Lauren, for now at least: Lauren B. She’s best known for being, well, not well known—Lauren B. is notoriously tight-lipped on the show. But I can’t be too judge-y because something’s clearly working for Arie. As for her future, we’ll find out during The Most Dramatic Finale Ever.