Mette
Mette was last recorded in 2016, when 6 babies were given it; 68 Americans have been recorded with it between 1959 and 2016 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mette by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mette mean?
Wiktionary, Danish section
Mette is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the sense “Margaret” (Margrethe).
Contraction of Merete, from Margrethe (“Margaret”).
/ˈmɛtə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Danish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mette?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #15,592, in 2016; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
7 babies in 2010, the peak
Mette peaked in 2010, when 7 girls were given it, #14,461 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 6 | #15,592 | 3.4 |
| 2012 | 6 | #16,232 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,461 | 3.9 |
| 2003 | 5 | #17,471 | 2.7 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,413 | 2.6 |
| 1977 | 6 | #9,212 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,145 | 3.0 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,845 | 2.9 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,163 | 3.6 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,780 | 3.0 |
Every recorded year (12)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 6 | #6,311 | 3.5 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,014 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Mette a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mette has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 12 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mette: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mette, and how old are they?
An estimated 64 Americans named Mette 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 417 people named Mette (414 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 65 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.4 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
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. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.