  We consider the lightly doped cuprates Y$_{0.97}$Ca$_{0.03}$BaCuO$_{6.05}$
and La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (with $x=0.02$,0.04), where the presence of a
fluctuating nematic state has often been proposed as a precursor of the stripe
(or, more generically, charge-density wave) phase, which sets in at higher
doping. We phenomenologically assume a quantum critical character for the
longitudinal and transverse nematic, and for the charge-ordering fluctuations,
and investigate the effects of these fluctuations in Raman spectra. We find
that the longitudinal nematic fluctuations peaked at zero transferred momentum
account well for the anomalous Raman absorption observed in these systems in
the $B_{2g}$ channel, while the absence of such effect in the $B_{1g}$ channel
may be due to the overall suppression of Raman response at low frequencies,
associated with the pseudogap. While in Y$_{0.97}$Ca$_{0.03}$BaCuO$_{6.05}$ the
low-frequency lineshape is fully accounted by longitudinal nematic collective
modes alone, in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ also charge-ordering modes with finite
characteristic wavevector are needed to reproduce the shoulders observed in the
Raman response. This different involvement of the nearly critical modes in the
two materials suggests a different evolution of the nematic state at very low
doping into the nearly charge-ordered state at higher doping.
