Aletha
Feminine · “truth”
Aletha is the Greek word for truth, and the Greek word for truth is a negative. Aletheia is built from a- meaning not and lethe, forgetting — the same lethe as the river in the underworld whose water erased memory. So truth in Greek is literally the state of not being forgotten, which is a strange and rather beautiful way to define it.
How old is the name Aletha?
Aletha first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Aletha alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 3,500 people named Aletha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aletha most popular?
Aletha peaked in 1904, reaching #600 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aletheia to Aletha
The story of Aletha
Alethea entered English use in the seventeenth century, when Puritan and Protestant families were taking names from virtues and from Greek — Alethea, Sophia, Charity, Patience — and it was chosen for exactly what it says. It reached America with that wave and remained quietly in use. The th here writes a Greek theta, which is a genuine consonant and not the German spelling habit that produces Retha and Doretha; in this name the th is doing the work it looks like it is doing, which is more than can be said for its neighbors.
Meaning
truth; unforgetting
Greek aletheia joins the negative prefix a- with a root about concealment and forgetting, and the word was philosophically loaded from early on — Plato uses it constantly, and later philosophers made a great deal of the negative construction. Lethe was the river of forgetfulness that the dead drank from. The derivation is not disputed. Alethea is the English spelling and Aletha drops the final vowel.
How the name formed
- aletheia
- Alethea
- Aletha
Related forms: ἀλήθεια · Aletea
Pronouncing Aletha
uh-LEE-thuh
uh-LEE-thuh, three syllables, stress in the middle, the th as in think. Alethea has four, with the ending sounded out — uh-LEE-thee-uh — so this spelling is genuinely a syllable shorter rather than merely a letter.
Nicknames for Aletha
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 1922142 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #600reached in 1904
- Change vs 2021
- +14.3%8 in 2024, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aletha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ἀλήθεια in Greek — transliteration
- Aletea in Spanish — same name
Alethas among us
people named Aletha are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Aletha sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single word and the construction behind it is genuinely remarkable.
- Thea is available as a short form and is a complete name across Europe.
- The th is a real Greek consonant here rather than a spelling habit, so the name is said as written.
- Alethea and Aletha differ by a syllable, so the two are said differently and confused constantly.
- Letha and Aletha are close enough to be substituted, and Letha means the opposite.
- The name belongs to an earlier American period and has not come back.
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Aletha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Alethas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Aletha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aletha in 2025?
- Aletha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Aletha with classmates?
- Aletha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aletha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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