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Gretta

#5,465 in 2025Girls' name

Pearl, through Greta

Gretta has been given to 4,139 babies in the U.S. since 1881. In 2025 it ranked #5,465 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1966, with 100 recorded.

Babies named Gretta, 2025

1 in 144,000

Gretta over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gretta: meaning, origin, and history

Pearl, through Greta

Ancient Greek

What Gretta means

Gretta belongs to the name family reached through Gretta → Greta → Margareta → Margaret. Its meaning is “pearl”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gretta is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Greta, Margareta and Margaret.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,139 girls were recorded with the name Gretta between 1881 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 100 in 1966; its best national rank was #800 in 1895.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,294 in 2020 to #5,465 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,231 in 2015 to #5,465 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 Gretta?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 144,000
23 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 69,900
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,465
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
99,910 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gretta 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 99,910 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gretta. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Grettas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gretta was born before 1967 — so the typical Gretta is around 58 today.

Median birth year
1967
About 58 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
13.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
26.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,723
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 13.1% of all recorded uses (543).

Is Gretta 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
−1,051
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,171
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,234
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.45×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
23.0%
Peak was 1966 (100)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#800
1895

Spellings of Gretta

Gretta is not the most common spelling — Loretta is, with 52.3% against Gretta's 1.2%.

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 Gretta is used

Across 1910–2025, Gretta was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 165,760 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 25,000
  2. 2Alabama1 in 100,000
  3. 3Kentucky1 in 100,000
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 100,000
  5. 5Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  6. 6South Carolina1 in 100,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Wisconsin1 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. Gretta has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gretta around the world

Where Gretta 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
    2008–2015
    #5,730
    in 2015
  • Ireland
    1965–2018
    #896
    in 2018
  • France
    1972–1985
    #2,891
    in 1985
  • Canada
    2012–2012
    #3,249
    in 2012
  • South Australia
    1951–2010
    #521
    in 2010

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

Notable people named Gretta

People whose public names include Gretta, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Gretta in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Gretta. Linked forms have their own page here.

GretaGreteGretelGrethaGretheGretchenGretGritta

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Gretta by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,465
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,171
Best rank ever
#800
1895
Peak year
1966
100 that year
First recorded
1881
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,139
Count in 2025
23

Names similar to Gretta

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

GreciaGretelGreerBrittaJoettaGrettelGregoriaRettaGregoryGreysonArlettaColettaAlettaJettaGrethelGretaZettaAnnettaGreyViolettaLouettaGreenleeJuliettaRhetta

Names with a curve like Gretta

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Gretta, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JoellaZenobiaLaunaNadaMatildeVeniceRafaelaAlethiaLanoraLeonorAlidaClair

Sibling names for Gretta

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 Gretta

Top names of 1966, Gretta's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1895Girls' names starting with G