Letty
Feminine · “joy”
Letty is the everyday form of Letitia, and behind that stands the Latin word laetitia — joy. English speakers have been clipping it that way since the days when Lettice was an ordinary name on parish registers. Two beats, both short, the double t giving it a light tap in the middle.
How old is the name Letty?
Letty was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Letty alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 3,100 people named Letty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Letty most popular?
Letty peaked in 1892, reaching #796 nationally. Today it ranks #1382, 586 places below that high. See the whole 1892 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Laetitia to Letty
The story of Letty
The Latin laetitia meant joy or gladness, and it became a woman's name, Laetitia, in the late Roman world. Medieval England took it up in the softened form Lettice, which stayed in steady use for centuries before the Latinate spelling Letitia came back into fashion. Letty is the spoken form that grew out of both, the way Betty grew from Elizabeth — a household name rather than a written one, which is why it appears in records later than its parent. It reached American birth records in its own right in the nineteenth century and has never quite left them.
Meaning
joy, gladness
The meaning comes through Letitia, from Latin laetitia, 'joy'. Letty also serves as a short form of other names — Lettice, Violetta, Colette — so a given Letty may sit on more than one root.
How the name formed
- Laetitia
- Letitia
- Lettice
- Lettie
- Letty
Related forms: Leticia · Letizia · Laetitia · Letitia · Lettice · Lettie
Pronouncing Letty
LET-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with Betty. The double t keeps the first vowel short; it is not LEET-ee.
Nicknames for Letty
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2025158 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #796reached in 1892
- Change vs 2022
- +17.9%158 in 2025, from 134
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.
Letty in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leticia in Spanish — related form
- Letizia in Italian — related form
- Laetitia in French — related form
- Letitia in English — related form
- Lettice in English — related form
- Lettie in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio, Minnesota, Texas.
Lettys among us
people named Letty are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,173 born in 2025 was named Letty
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Letty
- #1382
- Letty on the 2025 chart
- #760
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Letty went to 158 girls in 2025, but Letti and Lety are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 200, which makes it the 760th most-given girls’ name of the year — 622 places above the chart.
- Letty158
- Letti36
- Lety6
About 1 girl in 8,036 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,173 for Letty itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Letty is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Letty is headed
Letty 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.
Letty beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Letty in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds, and short enough that a child can write it early.
- Because it began as a pet form, some people will assume there is a longer name on the birth certificate. That is easy to answer, but expect the question — and you can choose Letitia formally if you would rather have both.
- It sits close to Lettie, Betty and Hetty, so occasional mishearing and the wrong spelling are likely over a lifetime.
- Records skew toward older generations, so the name is still strongly associated with grandmothers and great-aunts in many families. For some parents that is exactly the appeal; for others it is worth sitting with.
- A child named Letty will most likely be the only one in her class, which cuts both ways: no surname initial needed, but also no shared recognition.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Letty to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Letty
Feminine · #1382 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lettys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Letty are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Letty?
- Letty is the most-used spelling in US records — 158 of the 200 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Letti and Lety.
- How popular is the name Letty in 2025?
- Letty ranks #1382 among US girl names in 2025, with 158 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Letty?
- About 1 in every 10,173 US girls born in 2025 was named Letty — 158 in all.
- Will my child share the name Letty with classmates?
- Letty will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Letty
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
True#1382 · Arwen#1382 · Amilia#1382 · Dottie#1382 · Alitzel#1382 · Citlali#1380 · Carsyn#1380 · Jersey#1388
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Letty? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Letty and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
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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