Reatha
Feminine
Reatha is the tail of a much longer name standing on its own. Margaretha, Loretha and Aretha all end this way, and once the ending had been heard often enough it detached and became a name in its own right — which is the ordinary life cycle of a productive suffix.
How old is the name Reatha?
Reatha first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Reatha alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 1,000 people named Reatha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reatha most popular?
Reatha peaked in 1910, reaching #859 nationally. See the whole 1910 chart.
Where it comes from
From Margaretha to Reatha
The story of Reatha
The ea spelling is doing real work. Written as Retha, the first vowel could be short — the e of red — and English would have no way to rule it out; written with an ea it can only be long. That is the same job the ea does in bead, heat and reach, and it is one of the more reliable devices English has. The name appears in American records from the eighteen-nineties, concentrated in the South, alongside Retha, Aretha and Oretha, all of them the same ending with different amounts of the parent name left in front of it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The ending carries no meaning of its own. Whatever a particular Reatha inherits depends on which long name her family had in mind, and several are possible.
How the name formed
- Margaretha
- Retha
- Reatha
Pronouncing Reatha
REE-thuh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. The ea can only be a long e, which is the whole reason for the spelling.
Nicknames for Reatha
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 192772 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #859reached in 1910
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%5 in 1993, 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.
Reathas among us
people named Reatha 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
Reatha 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 vowel is unambiguous, which the shorter spelling is not.
- Six letters, two syllables, and nothing that has to be explained.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being entirely legible.
- Retha, Aretha and Reatha are near neighbors and will be confused.
- There is no settled parent name, so the meaning depends on the family.
- It reads clearly as a name of the turn of the twentieth century.
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Reatha
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Reathas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Reatha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reatha in 2025?
- Reatha is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Reatha with classmates?
- Reatha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reatha? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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