Alethia
Feminine · “Greek aletheia”
The Greek word for truth is a negative. Aletheia is built from a- and lethe, the river of forgetting, so truth in Greek is literally the state of not being hidden or forgotten: what has been brought back out of oblivion.
How old is the name Alethia?
Alethia first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Alethia alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 1,800 people named Alethia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Alethia most popular?
Alethia peaked in 1900, reaching #1106 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,001 places below that high. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aletheia to Alethia
The story of Alethia
Lethe is one of the rivers of the underworld, and the dead who drink from it forget their lives. The ordinary Greek word for truth is built on the same root with a negative prefix, so it names truth as the opposite of that forgetting: uncovering, disclosure, the thing no longer concealed. Twentieth-century philosophy made a great deal of this, though the argument that ancient Greeks heard the etymology in daily speech is disputed and probably too strong; words rarely stay transparent to their speakers. The name entered English use in the seventeenth century, when Protestant families were taking abstract nouns and Greek virtues as names, and it kept a small steady presence in American records through the nineteenth century.
Meaning
Greek aletheia, truth or unconcealment
From Greek aletheia, truth, formed from a-, not, and the root of lethe, forgetfulness or concealment. Alethia is an English spelling used as a given name from the seventeenth century, chiefly among Protestant families. The American peak is 1900.
How the name formed
- aletheia
- Alethia
Related forms: Aletheia · Alethea
Pronouncing Alethia
uh-LEE-thee-uh
Four syllables, stress on the second. The Greek has the stress on the third syllable and a fuller opening vowel.
Nicknames for Alethia
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 197374 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1106reached in 1900
- Change vs 2022
- −40.0%9 in 2025, from 15
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.
Alethia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aletheia in Greek — same name
- Alethea in English — spelling variant
Alethias among us
people named Alethia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Alethia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Alethia 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
Alethia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Alethia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Thea and Letty are two short forms in very different registers.
- The Greek meaning is exact and philosophically interesting.
- It is genuinely rare without being invented.
- Alethea is the more common English spelling.
- Four syllables is long before a surname.
- The 1900 peak places it at the turn of the century.
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Alethia
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Alethias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Alethia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Alethia in 2025?
- Alethia ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Alethia?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Alethia — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Alethia with classmates?
- Alethia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Alethia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Alethia? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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