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Gretel

#3,269 in 2025Girls' name

Diminutive of Grete

Gretel has been given to 1,514 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #3,269 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 68 recorded.

Babies named Gretel, 2025

1 in 69,100

Gretel over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gretel: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Grete

German

What Gretel means

Gretel is a diminutive of Grete.

Origin, language, and formation

Gretel is used in English, German and Spanish. Its origins include German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Grete and Margarete.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Gretel is pronounced /ˈɡʁeːtl̩/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,514 girls were recorded with the name Gretel between 1915 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 68 in 2022; its best national rank was #2,589 in 2022.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,519 in 2020 to #3,269 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,096 in 2015 to #3,269 in 2025.

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 Gretel?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 69,100
48 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 33,500
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,269
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
47,874 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gretel 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 2025 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 47,874 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gretel. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gretels were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gretel was born before 2009 — so the typical Gretel is around 16 today.

Median birth year
2009
About 16 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
28.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
60.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,376
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 28.7% of all recorded uses (435).

Is Gretel 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
−21
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+250
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+827
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.33×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
70.6%
Peak was 2022 (68)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,589
2022

Spellings of Gretel

Gretel is not the most common spelling — Greta is, with 64.8% against Gretel's 3.5%.

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 Gretel is used

Across 1910–2025, Gretel was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 116,564 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Georgia1 in —
  5. 5South Carolina1 in —

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. Gretel has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gretel around the world

Where Gretel ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2022
    #4,646
    in 2022
  • France
    1943–1997
    #4,348
    in 1997
  • South Australia
    1947–2012
    #871
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Gretel by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,269
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 250
Best rank ever
#2,589
2022
Peak year
2022
68 that year
First recorded
1915
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,514
Count in 2025
48

Names similar to Gretel

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

GrettelGrettaGittelGreysonGreciaGreerGrethelGreyGregoriaGreenleeCristelGreysiGreysenGregoryGreenlyGreisyKristelGreicyGreeicyGreidysKrystelGretaYittelGretna

Sibling names for Gretel

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

Explore around Gretel

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