Gretel is a rare spelling. It is summarised with Gretchen, which shares its sound and spelling pattern.
Meaning not yet researched.
Gretel: US girls given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 48 in 2025. Its best rank was #2,589 in 2022.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #2,589 in 2022; #3,269 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Gretel in 2025 was a girl.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#3,269 for US girls in 2025. Its best year was 2022, at #2,589.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Gretel: US girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 48 girls in 2025. Peak: #2,589 in 2022 · most girls in one year: 68 (2022).
In 2025, 48 US girls were named Gretel, making it the 3,269th most common girls’ name of the year, down 21 places from #3,248 in 2024. That is 1 fewer than the 49 girls named Gretel in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #2,589, reached in 2022. That year also had the most girls given the name: 68. For comparison, it was #4,097 in 2015 and #5,593 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Gretel in 94 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1915 with 7 babies. In all, 1,514 US babies have been given the name, all of them girls. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 435 babies named Gretel.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 490 US girls were named Gretel; the busiest of those years was 2022, with 68. In 2025 that was about 1 in 33,485 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Gretchen (53,837 babies since 1880), Greta (27,791 babies since 1880), Gretta (4,139 babies since 1880) and Grettel (1,089 babies since 1880).
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Wikidata records this spelling as a given name in German. That is where the name is used, not necessarily where it comes from.
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Gretel in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48 | #3,269 | — | — |
| 2024 | 49 | #3,248 | — | — |
| 2023 | 50 | #3,242 | — | — |
| 2022 | 68 | #2,589 | — | — |
| 2021 | 49 | #3,265 | — | — |
| 2020 | 43 | #3,519 | — | — |
| 2019 | 40 | #3,741 | — | — |
| 2018 | 45 | #3,455 | — | — |
| 2017 | 41 | #3,722 | — | — |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,943 | — | — |
| 2015 | 36 | #4,097 | — | — |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,755 | — | — |
| 2013 | 46 | #3,421 | — | — |
| 2012 | 37 | #4,074 | — | — |
| 2011 | 37 | #4,025 | — | — |
| 2010 | 33 | #4,432 | — | — |
| 2009 | 25 | #5,602 | — | — |
| 2008 | 19 | #6,898 | — | — |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,237 | — | — |
| 2006 | 20 | #6,438 | — | — |
| 2005 | 20 | #6,097 | — | — |
| 2004 | 20 | #6,055 | — | — |
| 2003 | 21 | #5,657 | — | — |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,556 | — | — |
| 2001 | 22 | #5,252 | — | — |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,301 | — | — |
| 1999 | 9 | #9,775 | — | — |
| 1998 | 9 | #9,556 | — | — |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,431 | — | — |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,373 | — | — |
| 1995 | 9 | #9,025 | — | — |
| 1994 | 13 | #6,818 | — | — |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,314 | — | — |
| 1992 | 7 | #10,868 | — | — |
| 1991 | 7 | #10,667 | — | — |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,566 | — | — |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,072 | — | — |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,317 | — | — |
| 1987 | 5 | #11,935 | — | — |
| 1986 | 8 | #7,989 | — | — |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,778 | — | — |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,453 | — | — |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,570 | — | — |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,536 | — | — |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,363 | — | — |
| 1980 | 15 | #4,806 | — | — |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,810 | — | — |
| 1978 | 7 | #7,912 | — | — |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,139 | — | — |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,855 | — | — |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,266 | — | — |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,096 | — | — |
| 1973 | 11 | #4,999 | — | — |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,632 | — | — |
| 1971 | 13 | #4,386 | — | — |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,372 | — | — |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,824 | — | — |
| 1968 | 11 | #4,301 | — | — |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,406 | — | — |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,018 | — | — |
| 1965 | 8 | #4,984 | — | — |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,274 | — | — |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,662 | — | — |
| 1962 | 9 | #4,658 | — | — |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,357 | — | — |
| 1960 | 6 | #5,942 | — | — |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,433 | — | — |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,030 | — | — |
| 1955 | 12 | #3,449 | — | — |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,064 | — | — |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,749 | — | — |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,641 | — | — |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,593 | — | — |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,618 | — | — |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,216 | — | — |
| 1941 | 10 | #2,920 | — | — |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,619 | — | — |
| 1939 | 9 | #2,997 | — | — |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,029 | — | — |
| 1937 | 9 | #3,025 | — | — |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,510 | — | — |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,484 | — | — |
| 1934 | 8 | #3,283 | — | — |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,480 | — | — |
| 1932 | 10 | #2,917 | — | — |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,605 | — | — |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,826 | — | — |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,009 | — | — |
| 1927 | 10 | #3,151 | — | — |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,172 | — | — |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,323 | — | — |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,616 | — | — |
| 1919 | 6 | #4,481 | — | — |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,583 | — | — |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).