Gretel

Where Gretel comes from

The dictionaries list Gretel as a given name — a diminutive of the female given name Margarete, from German — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1915
    First appearance
    #3,434 among girls, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 2022
    Peak, #2,579
    68 babies named Gretel — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Margarete, from German.
Namesakes

We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Gretel hasn't yet.

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.