Aretta
Feminine
Arethusa turned into a spring to get away from a river. Pursued by a river god, the nymph was changed into a stream and ran underground beneath the sea from Greece to Sicily, where she surfaced; the river followed her, and their waters are said to mix in the fountain that is still there.
How old is the name Aretta?
Aretta first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Aretta alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 400 people named Aretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aretta most popular?
Aretta peaked in 1908, reaching #1044 nationally. See the whole 1908 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Aretta
The spring in Syracuse is real and it is freshwater rising a few meters from the sea, which is exactly the sort of thing that produces a story. Ancient writers reported that a cup thrown into the Greek river would surface in the Sicilian spring, and that the water there tasted of the sacrifices made upstream, which is a testable claim nobody seems to have tested. Papyrus grows in it now. The myth is a piece of geography explained: two places, one improbable phenomenon, and a narrative built to connect them across six hundred miles of sea, which is what people did with unexplained facts before hydrology.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name cannot be assigned. It may be a build on Aretha with an Italian ending, it may be a shortening of Arethusa, and it may be an independent American construction. The Greek names it resembles have quite different meanings, one about excellence and one belonging to a nymph, and choosing between them would be guessing.
Pronouncing Aretta
uh-RET-uh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The doubled t keeps the middle vowel short, which is the one job doubled consonants reliably do in English.
Nicknames for Aretta
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 192432 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1044reached in 1908
- Change vs 1980
- +20.0%6 in 1991, from 5
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.
Arettas among us
people named Aretta 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
Aretta 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
- Three short forms in three registers, all of which stand alone as names.
- The rhythm is easy and every sound is available to an English speaker.
- It is genuinely uncommon while containing nothing unfamiliar.
- Aretha is commoner and will be written by anyone taking dictation.
- There is no secure meaning, and the Greek resemblances point in two directions.
- It is strongly dated to the turn of the last century in American records.
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Aretta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Arettas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Aretta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aretta in 2025?
- Aretta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Aretta with classmates?
- Aretta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aretta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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