How rare is the name Retha?

4,117 people in the United States have the first name Retha, about 1 in 73,362. It ranks #4,499 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

RETHA

#4,499

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
4,117
About
1 in 73,362
This common or more
84.1%
Who bears it

Of the 4,117 people named Retha, 68% reported their origin as White, 26.2% as Black 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.

Retha peaked in 1924, when 252 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18842014
Peak year
1924
Births that year
252
In 2014
5 ▼98%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 10,597 babies have been given the name since 1884. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero.

Retha by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1900s, when it ranked #807. The largest share of babies named Retha, 32.9%, were born between 1901 and 1927, the Greatest Generation's birth years.

1880s#2,03030
1890s#1,166178
1900s#807446
1910s#9011,372
1920s#8752,078
1930s#8721,868
1940s#1,0451,702
1950s#1,3261,595
1960s#1,950872
1970s#4,571257
1980s#7,923143
1990s#19,66446
2000s#47,6555
2010s#47,4065
Before 19012.2%
Greatest Generation 1901–2732.9%
Silent Generation 1928–4531%
Baby boom 1946–6426.6%
Generation X 1965–805.7%
Millennials 1981–961.5%
Generation Z 1997–120.1%
2013 and later0%

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

Where Retha is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Retha has been most common in Arkansas (7.4×), Oklahoma (5.6×), and West Virginia (5.4×), and least common in California (0.17×).

7,426 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.

Either side of Retha

#4,497 Ashwin · 4,120#4,498 Rufina · 4,118#4,500 Alpha · 4,116#4,501 Reena · 4,115

Spelled almost the same

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

#4,384 Reta · 4,287#10,003 Retta · 1,354#13,144 Reatha · 927#34,840 Reth · 233

Compare