Recorded 1900–2023 · United States
Aretha was most popular in 1968, when 543 American babies were given the name — ranking #715 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 5,656 people named Aretha.
Aretha first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1900, which makes it about 125 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 110 of the 126 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 5,656 American births named Aretha between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 4,310 are estimated to be alive today.
Aretha was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Aretha is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 6 births a year across 2021–2025 against 6 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Aretha is a girl’s name — 100.0% of the 5,656 Americans given it were girls and 0.0% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 100% girls and 0% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 4,310 Americans named Aretha are alive today — 76% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 57 years old, and half are between 52 and 61. That is a narrow band: Aretha arrived and faded within about a decade rather than staying in steady use.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Aretha on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org