Margarete
Feminine · “pearl”
The word for a pearl traveled west with the pearls. Greek margarites came from Persian, and behind that probably from an Indian word, following the same routes that carried the pearls themselves from the Gulf and the Indian Ocean into the Mediterranean. The name is the merchandise.
How old is the name Margarete?
Margarete first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Margarete alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 800 people named Margarete are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Margarete most popular?
Margarete peaked in 1888, reaching #753 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,179 places below that high. See the whole 1888 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From margarites to Margarete
The story of Margarete
Pearls came from the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the coast of India, and the word came with them: Greek took margarites from Persian traders, Latin took margarita from Greek, and every European language took it from Latin. It is a good example of a word traveling exactly as far as the thing it names. The name then acquired a second life in French, where marguerite means a daisy — the flower being white with a yellow center, which somebody thought looked like a pearl — and that association ran through medieval poetry. German Margarete keeps the Latin shape with the final e pronounced as a full syllable, which English does not do.
Meaning
pearl
Greek margarites, a pearl, borrowed from an eastern language — Old Persian is the usual intermediate and a Sanskrit word for a pearl or a bud is often given as the ultimate source. Margarete is the German spelling, with the final e sounded.
How the name formed
- margarites
- margarita
- Margarete
Related forms: Margarete · Marguerite · Margherita · Margareta
Pronouncing Margarete
mar-gah-REH-tuh
Four syllables, stress on the third, with the final e fully sounded — that is what distinguishes the German spelling from the English Margaret, which has three and a silent ending.
Nicknames for Margarete
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 192265 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #753reached in 1888
- Change vs 2022
- +40.0%7 in 2025, 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.
Margarete in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Margarete in German — same name
- Marguerite in French — same name
- Margherita in Italian — same name
- Margareta in Swedish — same name
Margaretes among us
people named Margarete are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Margarete
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Margarete
- #11932
- Margarete on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Margarete went to 7 girls in 2025, but Margarette is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,991 places above the chart.
- Margarette12
- Margarete7
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Margarete 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
Margarete 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
Margarete beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Margarete in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning naming something concrete, with a documented route across three languages.
- Three short forms, all of which are full names elsewhere.
- One of the largest name families in Europe stands behind it.
- English readers will silence the final e and produce Margaret, which is three syllables and a different name.
- Margarete, Margareta and Margarethe are all used in Europe and will be confused.
- It is strongly represented among the oldest generations and reads clearly as of that time.
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Margarete
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Margaretes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Margarete are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Margarete?
- Margarete is one of 2 recorded spellings. Margarette is the more common one — 12 births in 2025 against 7 for Margarete.
- How popular is the name Margarete in 2025?
- Margarete ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Margarete?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Margarete — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Margarete with classmates?
- Margarete will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Margarete
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Margarete? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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