Rheta
Rheta was last recorded in 1974, when 5 babies were given it; 1,200 Americans have been recorded with it between 1893 and 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rheta by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rheta?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #9,831, in 1974; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
151 babies in 1934, the peak
Rheta peaked in 1934, when 151 girls were given it, #527 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 5 | #9,831 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,821 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,593 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,683 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,352 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,291 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,351 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,194 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 15 | #3,322 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,778 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | 18 | #2,833 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 14 | #3,266 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 14 | #3,290 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 16 | #2,936 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 18 | #2,680 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 19 | #2,494 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 24 | #2,113 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 11 | #3,449 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 19 | #2,319 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 27 | #1,870 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 21 | #2,174 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 22 | #2,133 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 20 | #2,141 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 23 | #1,784 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 20 | #1,957 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 17 | #2,230 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 10 | #3,161 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 17 | #2,081 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,919 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 26 | #1,506 | 0.02 |
| 1938 | 30 | #1,369 | 0.03 |
| 1937 | 28 | #1,409 | 0.03 |
| 1936 | 37 | #1,180 | 0.04 |
| 1935 | 61 | #891 | 0.06 |
| 1934 | 151 | #527 | 0.14 |
| 1933 | 81 | #735 | 0.08 |
| 1932 | 20 | #1,807 | 0.02 |
| 1931 | 13 | #2,400 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 15 | #2,282 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 10 | #3,099 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 16 | #2,268 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 15 | #2,414 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 13 | #2,685 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 18 | #2,175 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 26 | #1,709 | 0.02 |
| 1923 | 16 | #2,351 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 20 | #2,013 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 19 | #2,107 | 0.02 |
| 1920 | 26 | #1,659 | 0.02 |
| 1919 | 20 | #1,912 | 0.02 |
| 1918 | 22 | #1,797 | 0.02 |
| 1917 | 18 | #1,980 | 0.02 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,797 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 15 | #2,126 | 0.02 |
| 1914 | 11 | #2,239 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 11 | #2,002 | 0.02 |
| 1912 | 15 | #1,466 | 0.03 |
| 1911 | 6 | #2,414 | 0.01 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,331 | 0.02 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,616 | 0.02 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Rheta a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rheta has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Rheta: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rheta, and how old are they?
An estimated 401 Americans named Rheta and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (33% of everyone recorded); the median is 77 years old and half are between 70 and 87. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 606 people named Rheta (606 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 550 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% above 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).
How common is the spelling Rheta?
Rheta is a less common spelling of Reta: SSA has recorded 1,200 Rheta and 8,616 Reta since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 15,589 babies since 1880, Rheta is the fourth most given (7.7% of them). In 2025 none of their 21 babies recorded by SSA was a Rheta (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Rheta
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 Rheta and names like it
- Compare Rheta and RetaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sRheta peaked in 1934.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rheta since 1910.
- The top names of 1934The year the most babies were named Rheta.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Rheta alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with RMost given first.