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Retta

#12,899 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Retta has been given to 3,399 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #12,899 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1922, with 60 recorded.

Babies named Retta, 2025

1 in 474,000

Retta over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Retta: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Retta means

Retta is a given name.

The naming story behind Retta

Wikidata records Retta as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q28191191, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,399 girls were recorded with the name Retta between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 60 in 1922; its best national rank was #324 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #17,014 in 2020 to #12,899 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.

How common is Retta?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#12,899
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Retta 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 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Retta. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rettas were born

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

Median birth year
1932
About 93 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
14.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
931
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 14.2% of all recorded uses (482).

Is Retta 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
+269
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+4,115
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
11.7%
Peak was 1922 (60)
Years since peak
103
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
39.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#324
1880

Spellings of Retta

Retta is not the most common spelling — Betty is, with 50.8% against Retta's 0.17%.

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 Retta is used

Across 1910–2025, Retta was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 312,078 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 50,000
  2. 2West Virginia1 in 50,000
  3. 3Tennessee1 in 100,000
  4. 4Alabama1 in —
  5. 5Arkansas1 in —
  6. 6California1 in —
  7. 7Iowa1 in —
  8. 8Indiana1 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. Retta has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Retta around the world

Where Retta 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.

  • South Australia
    1978–1978
    #626
    in 1978

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Retta

People whose public names include Retta, 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.

Retta in other languages

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

Rhetta

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

Retta by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#12,899
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 4,115
Best rank ever
#324
1880
Peak year
1922
60 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,399
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Retta

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

JettaZettaJoettaBrittaGrettaRetalNettaRethaYettaRetajLettaRetaArlettaColettaAlettaViolettaLouettaYittaMettaJuliettaRhettaAnnettaLuettaLovetta

Names with a curve like Retta

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

EugenieLouveniaDellVinnieLedaLuveniaDrucillaMelvinaDonnieMargarettaTrudieGennie

Sibling names for Retta

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 Retta

Top names of 1922, Retta's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880Girls' names starting with R