Margretta
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pearl".
Name Census estimates that about 279 living Americans carry the first name Margretta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Margretta today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Margretta births was 1921 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Margretta. 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 Margretta is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Margrettas were born before 1967.
People living today
279
~ 1 in 1,228,510 Americans
Peak year
1921
22 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1989 SSA rank
#13,702
Tracked since 1885
Census
Margretta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 429 people with the first name Margretta, which placed it at #22,989 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
#22,989
National first-name rank
People counted
429
429 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Margretta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Margretta is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.7%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Margretta 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 Margretta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.6% · 277
- Black or African American28.7% · 123
- Two or more races3.3% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Margretta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Margretta from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 162 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Margretta 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 Margretta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Margrettas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Margretta
The name Margretta is derived from the ancient Germanic name Margaret, which itself is a combination of the elements "mar" meaning pearl and "grit" meaning pearl. The name originated in the Mediterranean region during the early Middle Ages, around the 5th or 6th century AD.
The name Margaret was popularized by the cult of St. Margaret of Antioch, a semi-legendary virgin martyr who was believed to have lived in the 3rd or 4th century. Her hagiography, or sacred biography, described her as a young woman who was tortured and executed for her Christian faith. This association with a revered saint led to the widespread adoption of the name across medieval Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Margretta can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and property values in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. In this record, a woman named Margretta is listed as a landowner in the county of Lincolnshire.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Margretta. In the 12th century, Margretta of Navarre (1128-1184) was a Spanish princess and the Queen consort of England through her marriage to King Henry II. Another prominent figure was Margretta of Austria (1522-1586), a Renaissance princess who served as the regent of the Netherlands for her nephew, King Philip II of Spain.
In the literary realm, Margretta Sedgwick (1789-1867) was an American writer and educator who authored several popular novels and biographies in the 19th century. Margretta Higgins (1920-2015) was a Canadian author known for her children's books and young adult novels, including the acclaimed "The Massacre at Monmouth" series.
Lastly, Margretta Brooks (1932-2015) was an American civil rights activist and educator who played a significant role in the desegregation of public schools in the United States. She served as the president of the Topeka NAACP branch and was instrumental in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that struck down racial segregation in public schools.
People
Margretta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Margretta as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Margretta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Margretta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 279 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Margretta 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 1,228,510 US residents.
Is Margretta a common name?
We classify Margretta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 837 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Margretta most popular?
The single biggest year for Margretta was 1921, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Margretta is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Margretta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 429 people with the name Margretta, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,989 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 Margretta 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 Margretta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Margretta appears almost entirely female. Of the 428 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Margretta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Margretta is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.7%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Margretta most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Margretta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.6% (277 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 Margretta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Margretta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Margretta 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 Margretta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Margretta 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 Margretta 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 have the name Margretta?
See how many people have the name Margretta on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.