Name Awesome

Peta

Girls' name

Stone, rock, through Peter

Peta has been given to 6 babies in the U.S. since 1998. 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 1998, with 6 recorded.

Babies named Peta, 1998

1 in 613,000

Peta over time, 1880–2025

Girls
024618801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Peta: meaning, origin, and history

Stone, rock, through Peter

Ancient Greek

What Peta means

Peta belongs to the name family reached through Peta → Peter. Its meaning is “stone, rock”.

Origin, language, and formation

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

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Peter.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Peta is pronounced /piː.tə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6 girls were recorded with the name Peta between 1998 and 1998. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1998; its best national rank was #13,682 in 1998.

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 Peta?

Peta had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1998, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1998
1 in 613,000
6 of 3,677,189 births
Among girls only
1 in 294,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1998
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
424,807 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Peta 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 1998 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 424,807 children born in 1998 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Peta. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Petas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Peta was born before 1998 — so the typical Peta is around 27 today.

Median birth year
1998
About 27 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
6
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (6).

Is Peta 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 1998 (6)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#13,682
1998

Spellings of Peta

Peta is not the most common spelling — Eva is, with 15.5% against Peta's <0.01%.

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.

Peta around the world

Where Peta 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
    1996–2017
    #5,765
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1946–2013
    #818
    in 2013
  • New South Wales
    1970–1983
    #97
    in 1983

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Consumer and Business Services (South Australia) and NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA, NSW BDM data under CC BY 4.0.

Peta 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
#13,682
1998
Peak year
1998
6 that year
First recorded
1998
Last recorded
1998
All-time count
6
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Peta

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

PetPetriaPetitePetyonPetehnBetaPettyNietaQuetaEtaMaetaWetaPetalSetaOmetaOwetaUletaVeetaSeetaDetaOrnetaAnietaLuretaKoketa

Sibling names for Peta

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 Peta

Top names of 1998, Peta's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Girls' names starting with PPeter Variations & Nicknames