Aletheia
Feminine · “truth”
Aletheia is the Greek for truth, and the word is built by negation: a- plus lethe, forgetting. Truth in Greek is literally the state of not being hidden — what has been brought out of concealment.
How old is the name Aletheia?
Aletheia first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Aletheia is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Aletheia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aletheia most popular?
Aletheia peaked in 2020, reaching #2580 nationally. Today it ranks #2895, 315 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aletheia to Aletheia
The story of Aletheia
Aletheia was a personification in Greek thought, described as the daughter of Zeus and the nurse of Apollo in some accounts, and the word runs through the whole of Greek philosophy. Its structure — truth as unconcealment rather than as correspondence to fact — has been a live philosophical argument for twenty-five centuries and was taken up energetically by twentieth-century German thinkers. As a given name it is rare and recent in English, appearing among Christian families who know the word from the New Testament, where it is the ordinary term for truth.
Meaning
truth; unconcealment
Greek aletheia is the negative prefix a- with a root connected to lanthano, 'to escape notice', and lethe, 'forgetting' — the river of the underworld from which the dead drink to forget. So the word means literally the not-forgotten, the not-hidden. The reading is documented, and philosophers from Plato onward have made a great deal of it.
How the name formed
- aletheia
- Aletheia
Related forms: Ἀλήθεια · Alithia
Pronouncing Aletheia
al-uh-THAY-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Modern Greek says a-LEE-thee-a, with the stress earlier and a th as in thin. English speakers vary a great deal on this name and there is no settled American saying.
Nicknames for Aletheia
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 202066 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2580reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +3.6%58 in 2025, from 56
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.
Aletheia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ἀλήθεια in Greek — transliteration
- Alithia in Greek — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Aletheias among us
people named Aletheia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,712 born in 2025 was named Aletheia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Marlinda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aletheia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marlinda climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marlinda's path sketches the road Aletheia is walking now.
Aletheia sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aletheia is headed
Aletheia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aletheia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aletheia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning of real philosophical depth, and an unusually beautiful construction.
- Ali and Thea are both ready short forms and both are established names.
- Four syllables give it real weight, which pairs well with a short surname.
- It is unfamiliar enough in English that it will be spelled out and mispronounced constantly.
- No American pronunciation has settled, so the family will have to establish one.
- Naming a child Truth is a large gesture, and people will say so.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Aletheia
Feminine · #2895 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aletheias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Aletheia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aletheia in 2025?
- Aletheia ranks #2895 among US girl names in 2025, with 58 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aletheia?
- About 1 in every 27,712 US girls born in 2025 was named Aletheia — 58 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aletheia with classmates?
- Aletheia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aletheia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noora#2895 · Mylie#2895 · Vanellope#2895 · Amore#2895 · Miamor#2895 · Alyah#2895 · Alaska#2895 · Anastacia#2895
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aletheia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aletheia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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