Joretta
A feminine name of Germanic origin representing the strength and bravery of warriors.
Name Census estimates that about 378 living Americans carry the first name Joretta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joretta today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joretta births was 1931 (194 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joretta. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Joretta is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Jorettas were born before 1962.
People living today
378
~ 1 in 906,758 Americans
Peak year
1931
194 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1972 SSA rank
#6,203
Tracked since 1930
Census
Joretta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 631 people with the first name Joretta, which placed it at #17,471 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,471
National first-name rank
People counted
631
631 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joretta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joretta is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Joretta described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Joretta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.7% · 522
- Black or African American15.4% · 97
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 6
- Two or more races1.0% · 6
Popularity
Joretta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joretta from the 1930s through to the 1970s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 556 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joretta by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Joretta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jorettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio recorded the most babies named Joretta, while Louisiana, Wisconsin, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joretta
The given name Joretta is a feminine form of the male name Joretta, which has its origins in the ancient Germanic language. It is derived from the Germanic root words "gaur" meaning spear and "heit" meaning warrior or fighter. The name can be traced back to the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries AD, when it was commonly used among Germanic tribes in central and western Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joretta can be found in the Frankish chronicles of the 7th century, where it is mentioned as the name of a noblewoman from the Merovingian dynasty. This suggests that the name was popular among the ruling classes of the Frankish kingdom during that time.
In the 9th century, a Benedictine abbess named Joretta is recorded as the founder of the Monastery of St. Joretta in the German town of Bamberg. This monastic establishment played a significant role in the spread and preservation of Christianity in the region, and the name Joretta became associated with religious devotion and leadership.
During the Middle Ages, the name Joretta gained popularity across various parts of Europe. One notable figure was Joretta of Burgundy (1081-1126), a French noblewoman and the wife of Duke William IX of Aquitaine. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her influence in the cultural and political spheres of the time.
In the 16th century, Joretta von Isenburg (1520-1583) was a German noblewoman and abbess of the Imperial Abbey of Herford. She played an important role in the religious and political affairs of the region during the Reformation period.
Another notable figure was Joretta Belli (1592-1670), an Italian painter and one of the few female artists of the Baroque era to achieve recognition during her lifetime. She was renowned for her religious and mythological works, which can be found in various churches and galleries across Italy.
While the name Joretta has its roots in ancient Germanic culture, it has been adopted and used in various forms across different regions and languages throughout history. Despite its historical significance, it has become less common in modern times, but it remains a unique and distinctive name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Joretta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joretta as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joretta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joretta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 378 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joretta going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 906,758 US residents.
Is Joretta a common name?
We classify Joretta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,033 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joretta most popular?
The single biggest year for Joretta was 1931, when 194 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joretta is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joretta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 631 people with the name Joretta, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,471 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Joretta in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Joretta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joretta appears almost entirely female. Of the 640 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Joretta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joretta is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Joretta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joretta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.7% (522 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Joretta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joretta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joretta in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Joretta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joretta in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Joretta can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Joretta?
Find out how many Americans are named Joretta on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.