Gretel
Gretel was given to 48 girls in 2025, #3,269 among girls’ names; 1,514 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,370 Americans named Gretel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 38.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gretel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gretel mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gretel is “a diminutive of the female given name Margarete, from German.”
/ˈɡɹɛ.təl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gretel?
#3,269 among girls’ names, 2025
Gretel rose from #4,096 in 2015 to #3,269 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 20.2 to 29.9 per million.
68 babies in 2022, the peak
Gretel peaked in 2022, when 68 girls were given it, #2,589 among girls’ names. The 48 births of 2025 are 71% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48 | #3,269 | 29.9 |
| 2024 | 49 | #3,248 | 30.2 |
| 2023 | 50 | #3,242 | 31.2 |
| 2022 | 68 | #2,589 | 41.5 |
| 2021 | 49 | #3,265 | 29.9 |
| 2020 | 43 | #3,519 | 26.6 |
| 2019 | 40 | #3,740 | 23.8 |
| 2018 | 45 | #3,454 | 26.5 |
| 2017 | 41 | #3,721 | 23.7 |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,943 | 32.2 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 36 | #4,096 | 20.2 |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,753 | 35.3 |
| 2013 | 46 | #3,419 | 26.2 |
| 2012 | 37 | #4,072 | 21.0 |
| 2011 | 37 | #4,024 | 21.0 |
| 2010 | 33 | #4,431 | 18.6 |
| 2009 | 25 | #5,600 | 13.6 |
| 2008 | 19 | #6,894 | 10.0 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,233 | 7.8 |
| 2006 | 20 | #6,436 | 10.5 |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,092 | 10.8 |
| 2004 | 20 | #6,051 | 10.9 |
| 2003 | 21 | #5,652 | 11.5 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,550 | 7.8 |
| 2001 | 22 | #5,247 | 12.2 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,294 | 9.4 |
| 1999 | 9 | #9,768 | 5.1 |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,549 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,426 | 6.9 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,368 | 5.7 |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,020 | 5.1 |
| 1994 | 13 | #6,812 | 7.3 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,308 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 7 | #10,861 | 3.8 |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,660 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,560 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,066 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,312 | 5.6 |
| 1987 | 5 | #11,930 | 2.9 |
| 1986 | 8 | #7,985 | 4.7 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,776 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,451 | 5.9 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,569 | 7.2 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,534 | 4.1 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,362 | 7.8 |
| 1980 | 15 | #4,805 | 9.0 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,809 | 12.5 |
| 1978 | 7 | #7,910 | 4.6 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,137 | 3.3 |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,854 | 11.6 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,264 | 7.5 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,095 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 11 | #4,997 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,630 | 5.9 |
| 1971 | 13 | #4,384 | 7.8 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,371 | 3.4 |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,823 | 5.9 |
| 1968 | 11 | #4,300 | 6.7 |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,405 | 6.1 |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,017 | 4.7 |
| 1965 | 8 | #4,983 | 4.5 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,273 | 3.2 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,661 | 4.7 |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,657 | 4.6 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,356 | 5.0 |
| 1960 | 6 | #5,941 | 3.0 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,432 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,029 | 4.9 |
| 1955 | 12 | #3,448 | 6.1 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,062 | 2.6 |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,748 | 3.7 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,639 | 3.8 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,591 | 2.9 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,616 | 2.8 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,214 | 3.2 |
| 1941 | 10 | #2,918 | 8.3 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,617 | 4.4 |
| 1939 | 9 | #2,995 | 8.2 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,027 | 5.4 |
| 1937 | 9 | #3,024 | 8.5 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,508 | 6.7 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,482 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 8 | #3,281 | 7.7 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,478 | 5.0 |
| 1932 | 10 | #2,915 | 9.4 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,603 | 4.7 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,824 | 4.4 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,007 | 4.3 |
| 1927 | 10 | #3,149 | 8.4 |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,170 | 4.2 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,321 | 4.2 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,614 | 5.0 |
| 1919 | 6 | #4,479 | 5.3 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,581 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gretel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gretel has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 94 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Gretel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gretel, and how old are they?
1,370 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 90% of the 1,514 Americans ever recorded as Gretel. The median Gretel alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 38.
The 2020 Census counted 1,906 people named Gretel (1,900 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,102 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.7 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 23 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 80 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 164 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 140 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 327 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 631 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Gretel born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 10 | #2,099 | 1.3× |
| California | 7 | #2,586 | 0.8× |
Where Gretel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gretel is most over-represented in Texas: since 1915 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Gretel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 2,742 babies since 1880, Gretel is the most given (55% of them). In 2025 it was given to 48 of their 94 babies (51%), again the most given.
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 Gretel
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 Gretel and names like it
- Compare Gretel and GrettelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sGretel peaked in 2022.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gretel since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Gretel: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Gretel.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Gretel alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with GMost given first.