Retha
Retha reached its high-water mark in 1924 at number 438, and has been recorded 10,597 times in all. It has not appeared in the national data since 2014. About 4,000 Rethas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 72.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Retha
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 10,597
- Estimated living today
- 4,000
- Median age today
- 72
- Peak year
- 1924
- Best rank
- 438th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1884
How old the living Rethas are
born that year still alive today
Of the 10,597 babies given the name since 1884, about 4,000 are alive — 37 in every hundred. Roughly 5 of them are children and 2,900 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1953 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where Retha is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Retha is most concentrated in Arkansas (7.4×), Oklahoma (5.6×), West Virginia (5.4×), North Carolina (4.5×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1924
The most popular girls’ names the year Retha peaked:
Related names
Retha against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.