Gretchen — #3565 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Gretchen

The Social Security Administration has registered 53,768 babies named Gretchen between 1882 and 2024, spanning 143 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Gretchen currently holds the #3565 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1973, when 1,350 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Gretchen performed strongest in the 1970s, accumulating 11,802 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Gretchen shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Pennsylvania, which accounts for 4,227 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Ohio and California. In total, SSA state-level files list Gretchen in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Gretchen in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 53,768 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.