Ertha
Ertha was last recorded in 1968, when 5 babies were given it; 241 Americans have been recorded with it between 1914 and 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ertha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ertha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #7,337, in 1968; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
16 babies in 1929, the peak
Ertha peaked in 1929, when 16 girls were given it, #2,119 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 5 | #7,337 | 3.0 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,330 | 3.5 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,761 | 3.0 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,372 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,648 | 3.9 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,120 | 2.6 |
| 1954 | 5 | #5,991 | 2.6 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,179 | 4.6 |
| 1944 | 5 | #4,779 | 3.8 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,585 | 6.3 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | 5 | #4,451 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,831 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,241 | 7.6 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,570 | 6.7 |
| 1933 | 8 | #3,201 | 7.9 |
| 1932 | 7 | #3,682 | 6.6 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,538 | 4.7 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,777 | 6.2 |
| 1929 | 16 | #2,119 | 14.3 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,892 | 6.1 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,456 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,933 | 9.3 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,998 | 9.0 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,134 | 5.6 |
| 1923 | 9 | #3,459 | 7.5 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,768 | 6.7 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,497 | 7.3 |
| 1919 | 9 | #3,289 | 8.0 |
| 1918 | 7 | #4,002 | 6.0 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,819 | 4.6 |
| 1916 | 10 | #2,894 | 9.6 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,545 | 7.1 |
| 1914 | 7 | #2,987 | 9.2 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ertha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ertha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ertha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ertha, and how old are they?
An estimated 54 Americans named Ertha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 192 people named Ertha (181 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 79 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,294 babies since 1880, Ertha is the second most given (7.3% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ertha
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ertha and names like it
- Compare Ertha and EarthaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sErtha peaked in 1929.
- South Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ertha since 1910.
- The top names of 1929The year the most babies were named Ertha.
- Names starting with EMost given first.