Rhett
Masculine · Dutch roots · “advice”
Rhett is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 36,669 boys against 251 girls since 1880.
Rhett began as a surname carried by a Dutch family into colonial South Carolina, and it kept that clipped, single-syllable shape all the way into modern nurseries. It rhymes with "bet" and lands hard on the T, which is part of why it holds up next to almost any surname. Margaret Mitchell gave it to her most famous character in 1936, and the name has been traveling on its own two feet ever since.
How old is the name Rhett?
Rhett first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Rhett is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 35,500 people named Rhett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rhett most popular?
Rhett peaked in 2021, reaching #149 nationally. Today it ranks #188, 39 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Where it comes from
From raad (Dutch, "advice") to Rhett
The story of Rhett
The name comes from the Dutch surname de Raedt, reshaped in English as Rhett. It took hold in colonial South Carolina, where William Rhett (1666–1722) served as a colonial official and is remembered for capturing the pirate Stede Bonnet off the Carolina coast; the nineteenth-century politician Robert Barnwell Rhett belonged to the same Charleston family line. Margaret Mitchell borrowed that Charleston surname for Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind in 1936, and the 1939 film carried it to a far wider audience. Its move from surname to first name is an American story, and its long-standing strength across Texas and the Southeast still reflects where it started.
Meaning
advice, counsel
Rhett is an Anglicized spelling of the Dutch surname de Raedt, from raad, "advice" or "counsel." The showy rh- is an English respelling, not a Greek root — it looks like rhythm and rhyme, but it is unrelated to them.
How the name formed
- raadDutch, "advice"
- de Raedt
- Rhett
Related forms: de Raedt
Pronouncing Rhett
RET
One syllable, rhyming with "bet." The h is silent — the rh- is purely a spelling convention.
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 20212,538 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #149reached in 2021
- Change vs 2023
- −11.6%1,936 in 2025, from 2,189
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.
Rhett in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- de Raedt in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Rhetts among us
people named Rhett are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 882 born in 2025 was named Rhett
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Javier test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rhett's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Javier climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Javier's path sketches the road Rhett is walking now.
Rhett 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
Where Rhett is headed
Rhett 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.
Rhett beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rhett in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable with a hard final consonant, so it stays clear when called across a room and sits easily in front of longer surnames.
- Documented as a family name in colonial South Carolina, giving it a paper trail well before it became a first name.
- Familiar to almost everyone through Gone with the Wind, so people recognize it even when they have never met one.
- Its recent wave is broad enough that the spelling is no longer surprising, while a child is still unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- The silent h invites misspelling. Expect Rett and Ret on forms and name tags, and a lifetime of spelling it out over the phone.
- The Gone with the Wind link is unavoidable, and that novel's romanticized picture of the antebellum South draws real criticism now. Some people hear the character first; others hear nothing but the name.
- At one syllable it offers essentially no short form, so what you write on the birth certificate is what gets used every day.
- The name's wave is very recent, so a Rhett will be read as a young name for some years yet — there are few adult Rhetts around to balance the impression.
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Rhett
Masculine · Dutch roots · #188 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rhetts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 35,500 people named Rhett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rhett in 2025?
- Rhett ranks #188 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,936 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rhett?
- About 1 in every 882 US boys born in 2025 was named Rhett — 1,936 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rhett with classmates?
- Rhett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rhett
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Peter#187 · Maxwell#189 · Callan#190 · Aziel#186 · Amari#185 · Alan#191 · Chase#192 · Jesse#184
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rhett? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rhett and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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