How rare is the name Aretha?

4,025 people in the United States have the first name Aretha, about 1 in 75,039. It ranks #4,572 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census, tied with 1 other.

first name

ARETHA

#4,572

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
4,025
About
1 in 75,039
This common or more
84.2%
Who bears it

Of the 4,025 people named Aretha, 86.8% reported their origin as Black, 5.8% as White and 3.4% as two or more races. Virtually all are female (99.7%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Aretha peaked in 1968, when 543 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
19002023
Peak year
1968
Births that year
543
In 2023
6 ▼99%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 5,656 babies have been given the name since 1900. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero.

Aretha by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1960s, when it ranked #1,248. The largest share of babies named Aretha, 52.6%, were born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X's birth years.

1900s#2,42064
1910s#2,500222
1920s#2,450344
1930s#2,290339
1940s#2,633315
1950s#2,900355
1960s#1,2482,008
1970s#1,5771,442
1980s#4,183368
1990s#11,318123
2000s#29,03130
2010s#30,50828
2020s#27,87718
Before 19010.1%
Greatest Generation 1901–2710%
Silent Generation 1928–4510.1%
Baby boom 1946–6418.2%
Generation X 1965–8052.6%
Millennials 1981–967.3%
Generation Z 1997–121.2%
2013 and later0.6%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Aretha is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Aretha has been most common in Mississippi (7.1×), Alabama (4.7×), and Georgia (3.7×), and least common in Pennsylvania (0.32×).

3,171 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Exactly as common as Aretha

1 other first name also has 4,025 people.

#4,572 Taniya · 4,025

Either side of Aretha

#4,570 Caron · 4,026#4,570 Viet · 4,026#4,572 Taniya · 4,025#4,574 Torin · 4,023

Spelled almost the same

5 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Aretha, most common first.

#23,091 Aretta · 427#29,411 Artha · 301#32,182 Areta · 263#38,294 Areatha · 201#45,015 Aritha · 152

Compare