Grethe

Girls' name

Derived form of Margrethe

Grethe has been given to 7 babies in the U.S. since 1932. 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 1932, with 7 recorded.

Babies named Grethe, 1932

1 in 302,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Grethe: meaning, origin, and history

Derived form of Margrethe

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Grethe means

Grethe is a derived form of Margrethe.

Origin, language, and formation

Grethe is used in Danish, German and Norwegian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Margrethe, Margarethe and Margarete.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7 girls were recorded with the name Grethe between 1932 and 1932. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1932; its best national rank was #3,715 in 1932.

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 Grethe?

Grethe had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1932, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1932: 1 in 302,000; 7 of 2,111,250 births
Among girls only: 1 in 152,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1932: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 209,059 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Grethe 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 1932 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 209,059 children born in 1932 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Grethe. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Grethes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Grethe was born before 1932 — so the typical Grethe is around 93 today.

Median birth year: 1932; About 93 years old
Biggest decade: 1930s; 100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1930s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (7).

Is Grethe 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 1932 (7)
Years since peak: 93; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Not enough data; Too few years
Best rank ever: #3,715; 1932

Spellings of Grethe

Grethe is not the most common spelling — Gretchen is, with 49.4% against Grethe's <0.01%.

Gretchen49.4%53,799
Greta25.5%27,786
Retha9.7%10,597
Aretha5.2%5,656
Gretta3.8%4,139
Ruthe1.8%1,949
Gretel1.4%1,514
Oretha1.1%1,158

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.

Grethe around the world

Where Grethe 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.

Norway
1880–2012
#561
in 2012

Popularity data from Statistics Norway. SSB data under CC BY 4.0.

Grethe 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: #3,715; 1932
Peak year: 1932; 7 that year
First recorded: 1932
Last recorded: 1932
All-time count: 7
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Grethe

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

Gretal Greyce Greidi Greydy Greshell Greys Greydys Gresa Gretl Greda Grechen Greycie Gretchell Greycen Greysyn Greydi Greicy Greeta Greya Leathe Greisy Greylin Greysi Grenisha

Sibling names for Grethe

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

Louella Billy Donald Ardith Roma Marvel Bobby Shirlee

For a brother

Delano Talmadge Franklyn Boyce Carrol Dudley Arlen Delmar

Explore around Grethe

Top names of 1932, Grethe's peak year The 1930s in full Other names that peaked in 1932 Girls' names starting with G Uncommon Danish Girl Names