Marketa
Feminine · “pearl”
Marketa is the Czech form of a name the whole of Europe has, minus the accent that tells a Czech reader which vowel is long. The language it comes from has given English two words, and both of them are weapons from a fifteenth-century peasant army.
How old is the name Marketa?
Marketa first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Marketa alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 600 people named Marketa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marketa most popular?
Marketa peaked in 1984, reaching #2227 nationally. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From margarites to Marketa
The story of Marketa
Czech has given English very few words and two of them are artillery. The Hussite armies of the fourteen-twenties fought the Holy Roman Empire with wagon forts and hand-held firearms, and the vocabulary traveled with the technology. A píšťala was a pipe or a whistle, applied to a small hand cannon; it went into German and then French and came out as pistol. A houfnice was a catapult or short gun used against a crowd, from houf, a crowd; German took it as Haubitze and English as howitzer. Both words are still in daily use in every army in the world, and both were coined by a Bohemian religious movement that was making up siege warfare as it went. The third Czech word English uses is robot, which is also about compulsion.
Meaning
pearl
From the Greek word for a pearl, which Greek itself borrowed from further east and whose own origin is not settled. The Czech spelling puts an accent on the second e to mark it long; American records cannot carry it, which removes the one thing making the spelling Czech.
How the name formed
- margarites
- Margareta
- Markéta
- Marketa
Related forms: Markéta · Margit · Margareta
Pronouncing Marketa
MAR-keh-tah
Three syllables with the stress fixed on the first, as Czech always places it. The accent in the Czech spelling marks the second e as long rather than stressed, which English readers consistently misinterpret.
Nicknames for Marketa
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
- 1954
- Most girls named
- 198444 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2227reached in 1984
- Change vs 2007
- 0.0%5 in 2009, 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.
Marketa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Markéta in Czech — same name
- Margit in Hungarian — same name
- Margareta in Swedish — same name
Marketas among us
people named Marketa 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
Marketa 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
- The meaning is documented and concrete.
- Meg is available as an English familiar form and Keta as a Czech one.
- Front stress on three syllables is comfortable for English speakers.
- Without the accent the spelling is no longer quite Czech, and Czech readers will notice.
- Margareta, Marketta and Marquita will all be written for it.
- English speakers tend to stress the second syllable, which Czech never does.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Marketa to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Marketa? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Marketa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Marketas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Marketa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marketa in 2025?
- Marketa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marketa with classmates?
- Marketa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marketa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Marketa and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle