Claretta

Girls' name

Diminutive of Clara

Claretta has been given to 924 babies in the U.S. since 1902. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1943, with 30 recorded.

Babies named Claretta, 1982

1 in 702,000

Claretta over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Claretta: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Clara

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Claretta means

Claretta is a diminutive of Clara.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Claretta is used in Italian.

Another recorded pronunciation is /kla.ˈret.ta/ for Claretta.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Claretta → Clara. The family’s meaning is “bright, shining, clear”, recorded in English with the source elements clārus.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Clara.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 924 girls were recorded with the name Claretta between 1902 and 1982. Its highest annual count was 30 in 1943; its best national rank was #1,342 in 1906.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Claretta?

Claretta had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1982, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1982: 1 in 702,000; 5 of 3,507,638 births
Among girls only: 1 in 339,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1982: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 486,263 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Claretta sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1982 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 486,263 children born in 1982 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Claretta. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Clarettas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Claretta was born before 1940 — so the typical Claretta is around 85 today.

Median birth year: 1940; About 85 years old
Biggest decade: 1940s; 21.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 14.4%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 273; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1940s — 21.9% of all recorded uses (202).

Is Claretta rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1943 (30)
Years since peak: 82; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 32.7% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,342; 1906

Spellings of Claretta

Claretta is not the most common spelling — Loretta is, with 87.0% against Claretta's 0.45%.

Loretta87.0%177,564
Lauretta4.8%9,710
Carletta1.5%3,060
Coretta1.2%2,433
Floretta1.0%2,071
Clarita0.61%1,244
Lavetta0.58%1,186
Aretta0.56%1,142

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Claretta is used

Across 1910–2025, Claretta was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 179,113 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1North Carolina1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Claretta has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Claretta by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,342; 1906
Peak year: 1943; 30 that year
First recorded: 1902
Last recorded: 1982
All-time count: 924
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Claretta

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Claudetta Clarisse Clarity Clarita Claribel Claretha Maryetta Claris Claudene Clarinda Brigitta Claudina Clarence Claudean Clancy Claritza Clarisa Claressa Lovetta Clarke Clarise Giulietta Clarabelle Clarene

Sibling names for Claretta

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Judie Prudence Gerry Ruthann Donnie Sammie Jerilyn Dottie

For a brother

Jerold Gail Errol Lupe Jerald Truman Mack Domingo

Explore around Claretta

Top names of 1943, Claretta's peak year The 1940s in full Other names that peaked in 1906 Girls' names starting with C