Fleta
Feminine
Fleta is the title of a medieval law book, and the traditional explanation of the title is that the author wrote it in prison. The Fleet was the London jail where debtors and, at various times, the inconvenient were held; a Latin treatise on English law written about 1290 is called by its name, and nobody knows who wrote it.
How old is the name Fleta?
Fleta first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Fleta alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 200 people named Fleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fleta most popular?
Fleta peaked in 1884, reaching #640 nationally. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A London river that became a sewer to Fleta
Our story of Fleta
The prison was named for a river. The Fleet ran down from Hampstead into the Thames, was navigable at its mouth, and was steadily used as a drain until it was one; by the eighteenth century it was notorious, and it was covered over in stages until nothing of it was visible. It is still there, running in a pipe under the streets, and it can be heard through a grating in one or two places. Half a dozen London names come from it — a street, a prison, a bridge, a district — and the river that produced them all has not been seen by anybody for two hundred years, which is a fair description of how place names outlast places.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a woman's name nothing can be established. It may be built on the English word for swift, it may be a Latin-looking ending on a short front, and it may be an independent nineteenth-century American formation. The law book and the London prison share the spelling and are almost certainly not the source.
How the name formed
- A London river that became a sewer
- A prison and a street named after it
- A medieval law book called by the same name
- Fleta in American records from the eighteen eighties
Pronouncing Fleta
FLEE-tuh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long first vowel. Some families say FLET-uh with a short one, which is closer to the Latin and much rarer in America.
Nicknames for Fleta
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
- 191746 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #640reached in 1884
- Change vs 1957
- −41.7%7 in 1962, from 12
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.
Fletas among us
people named Fleta 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
Fleta 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
- It is short, crisp and immediately sayable by anybody.
- Etta comes out of it as a complete traditional name.
- It is genuinely rare while being made of simple material.
- No source can be given, and three explanations are equally likely.
- It is firmly of the nineteenth century in American records.
- It will be heard as Fleeta or Fleta interchangeably.
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Fleta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Fletas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Fleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fleta in 2025?
- Fleta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Fleta with classmates?
- Fleta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frances#318 · Florence#391 · Faith#254 · Felicia#5554 · Fannie#3342 · Faye#514 · Flora#607 · Freda#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fleta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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