The name comes from the old German words lureln, Rhine dialect for "murmuring", and the Celtic term ley "rock".
In the German language orthographic reform of 1903, in almost all German terms the letter "y" was changed to the letter "i", but in some German names the letter "y" was kept, such as Bayern, Speyer, Spay, (Rheinberg-)Orsoy, and including Loreley, which is thus the correct spelling in German.