Aretha
Aretha is absent from the 2024 data, which means fewer than five births. Its best rank was 398th, in 1968.
- Rank in 2024
- —fewer than 5 births
- Births in 2024
- 0not in the data
- Peak year
- 1968543 births
- Best rank
- #398in 1968
- Since 1900
- 5,656people given the name
The story in the numbers
5,656 girls have been named Aretha in the United States since 1900, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1968, with 543 births.
The name has all but left use: none recorded in 2024, against 543 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1968, and the 1960s alone account for 36%. It has spent 11 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Aretha | |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 64 | |
| 1910s | 222 | |
| 1920s | 344 | |
| 1930s | 339 | |
| 1940s | 315 | |
| 1950s | 355 | |
| 1960s | 2,008 | |
| 1970s | 1,442 | |
| 1980s | 368 | |
| 1990s | 123 | |
| 2000s | 30 | |
| 2010s | 28 | |
| 2020s | 18 |
In 1968, its biggest year
Aretha was the 398th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1968 were Lisa, Michelle, Kimberly, Jennifer and Melissa. See all of 1968.
Names that rose and fell with Aretha
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Corettapeak 1968
- Tonjapeak 1967
- Sonyapeak 1967
- Mechellepeak 1968
- Traceypeak 1970
- Dawnpeak 1970
- Keciapeak 1965
- Gidgetpeak 1966
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.