Greta
Feminine · Greek roots · “pearl”
Greta is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 27,786 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Greta is what German and Scandinavian speakers made of Margarete when they wanted something quicker: two syllables, a hard opening, an open vowel at the end. It crossed the Atlantic with German and Scandinavian families in the nineteenth century and has been on American records ever since, never crowding a classroom, never disappearing either. The full name behind it goes back to the Greek word for pearl.
How old is the name Greta?
Greta first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Greta alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 22,000 people named Greta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Greta most popular?
Greta peaked in 1932, reaching #317 nationally. Today it ranks #908, 591 places below that high. See the whole 1932 chart.
Greta appears on these lists:
- Quiet perennials: a century old, never popular
- Scandinavian names, cool by design
- Golden-age Hollywood names
- German names, sturdy and storied
- The best baby names starting with G
- all guides
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Margarites (Greek) to Greta
The story of Greta
The long form begins with the Greek margarites, 'pearl', which passed into Latin as Margarita and became one of the most widely borne names in medieval Christian Europe. German and Scandinavian speakers trimmed it hard from the front — Margarete to Grete, Margareta to Greta — and both clipped forms took on lives of their own as full given names. Related diminutives went their own ways too: Gretchen in German, and Gretel, the sister in the Grimms' 'Hansel and Gretel'. Greta reached the United States mainly with German and Scandinavian immigration, which is why it settled most deeply in the Upper Midwest.
Meaning
pearl
Greta is a short form of Margarete/Margareta, from Greek margarites, 'pearl'.
How the name formed
- MargaritesGreek
- MargaritaLatin
- Margarete / Margareta
- Grete
- Greta
Related forms: Grete · Grethe · Margareta · Gretchen · Griet · Margarita
Pronouncing Greta
GRET-uh
GRET-uh is the usual American reading. GRAY-tuh is also heard, closer to the German and Swedish vowel, and both are correct — expect to state your preference now and then.
Nicknames for Greta
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 2014494 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #317reached in 1932
- Change vs 2022
- −10.2%291 in 2025, from 324
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.
Greta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Grete in German — spelling variant
- Grethe in Danish, Norwegian — spelling variant
- Margareta in Swedish — related form
- Gretchen in German — related form
- Griet in Dutch — related form
- Margarita in Italian, Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, California, Wisconsin.
Gretas among us
people named Greta are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,523 born in 2025 was named Greta
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 Isabell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Greta's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Isabell climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Isabell's path sketches the road Greta is walking now.
Greta 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 Greta is headed
Greta 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.
Greta beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Greta in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, five letters, spelled the way it sounds once the vowel is settled — easy to write, easy to fit on a form.
- Recognized across German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch, with near-identical forms in each.
- Belongs to the enormous Margaret family, so it connects to grandmothers' names without repeating them.
- A continuous record in American use since the nineteenth century, familiar without being common.
- The two pronunciations, GRET-uh and GRAY-tuh, both have a fair claim. You will hear the other one from teachers and doctors' offices for years, which is a mild correction rather than a real burden.
- It is strongly associated with one prominent contemporary figure, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Some people will make that link first; how much that matters depends on how you feel about it.
- Greta is already a short form, so it offers little room for further shortening — what you name is what will be said.
- The spelling Gretta also exists, so expect the occasional doubled t in writing.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Greta to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Greta
Feminine · Greek roots · #908 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gretas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Greta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Greta in 2025?
- Greta ranks #908 among US girl names in 2025, with 291 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Greta?
- About 1 in every 5,523 US girls born in 2025 was named Greta — 291 in all.
- Will my child share the name Greta with classmates?
- Greta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Greta
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Teresa#908 · Micah#908 · Stormi#908 · Nataly#907 · Kollyns#904 · Bennett#912 · Rayne#904 · Khalani#904
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Greta? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Greta and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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