Metta
Feminine
The first American detective novel was written by a Metta, under a name that was not hers. Metta Victoria Fuller Victor published The Dead Letter as Seeley Regester, and it appeared a decade and a half before the first English detective novel is usually dated.
How old is the name Metta?
Metta was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Metta alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 300 people named Metta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Metta most popular?
Metta peaked in 1880, reaching #435 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Metta
She wrote everything. Metta Victor produced dime novels by the hundred, edited two magazines, wrote a temperance novel at fifteen, published an anti-slavery book that Lincoln is said to have read, and turned out domestic comedy under yet another name; the detective novel was one item in a catalog that ran to a hundred titles. Her sister was a novelist too, and the pair of them were writing professionally in an era when a woman's name on a book cover was itself a subject of comment. The Dead Letter has a private detective, a plot turning on a piece of undelivered mail, and a narrator who is not as clever as he thinks.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source can be established. It has been read as a Scandinavian short form, as an English pet name from a longer word, and as an independent coinage, and the American record supports none of them over the others. Books that hand it a meaning are supplying one rather than reporting one.
Pronouncing Metta
MET-uh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled t guarantees the short first vowel, which is the one thing the spelling settles beyond argument.
Nicknames for Metta
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
- 191723 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #435reached in 1880
- Change vs 2019
- +60.0%8 in 2021, 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.
Mettas among us
people named Metta 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
Metta 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
- Short, firm and impossible to mispronounce or misspell once heard.
- It is genuinely rare while containing nothing unfamiliar.
- Etta is a complete, established name sitting in the second half.
- There is no meaning to give a child who asks for one.
- It will be heard as Meta and Greta, both of which are commoner.
- It belongs to the oldest layer of the American record and reads that way.
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Metta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Mettas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Metta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Metta in 2025?
- Metta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Metta with classmates?
- Metta 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 Metta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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