Oretha
A feminine variation of Oreth, derived from Hebrew meaning "plant, tree".
Name Census estimates that about 368 living Americans carry the first name Oretha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Oretha today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Oretha births was 1926 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Oretha. 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 Oretha is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Orethas were born before 1964.
People living today
368
~ 1 in 931,398 Americans
Peak year
1926
40 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1981 SSA rank
#11,620
Tracked since 1910
Census
Oretha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 713 people with the first name Oretha, which placed it at #15,968 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
#15,968
National first-name rank
People counted
713
713 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Oretha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oretha is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.0%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Oretha 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 Oretha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American79.4% · 566
- White16.0% · 114
- Two or more races2.8% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 3
Popularity
Oretha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Oretha from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 280 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
Oretha 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 Oretha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orethas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Oretha, while Kentucky, Oklahoma, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Oretha
The name Oretha is derived from the Greek word "oreinós," meaning "mountainous" or "of the mountains." It is believed to have originated in ancient Greece, where mountains held spiritual significance and were associated with the gods.
In Greek mythology, several deities were linked to mountains, such as Zeus, who was said to dwell on Mount Olympus. The name Oretha may have been given to children born in mountainous regions, or to those whose parents wished to invoke the protection of the mountain gods.
The earliest known record of the name Oretha dates back to the 5th century BC, where it appears in an ancient Greek text referring to a woman from the city of Corinth. Throughout the Classical period, the name was moderately popular among Greek families, particularly in the mountainous regions of the Peloponnese and central Greece.
One notable historical figure with the name Oretha was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 3rd century BC. She is credited with making significant contributions to the field of geometry, though few details about her life have survived.
In the Byzantine era, the name Oretha experienced a resurgence in popularity, possibly due to the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Saint Oretha of Constantinople, a 6th-century nun renowned for her piety and charitable works, may have inspired many parents to name their daughters in her honor.
During the Middle Ages, the name Oretha spread beyond Greece to other parts of Europe, though it remained relatively uncommon. One notable bearer of the name was Oretha of Aquitaine, a 9th-century noblewoman and patron of the arts.
In more recent times, the name Oretha has been associated with several influential figures, such as Oretha Castle Haley (1900-1987), an American civil rights activist and educator, and Oretha Ferguson (1925-2018), a prominent African American librarian and community leader.
People
Oretha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Oretha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Oretha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Oretha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 368 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Oretha 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 931,398 US residents.
Is Oretha a common name?
We classify Oretha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,158 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Oretha most popular?
The single biggest year for Oretha was 1926, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Oretha is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Oretha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 713 people with the name Oretha, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,968 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 Oretha 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 Oretha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Oretha appears almost entirely female. Of the 708 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 Oretha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oretha is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.0%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Oretha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Oretha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (566 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 Oretha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Oretha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Oretha 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 Oretha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Oretha 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 Oretha 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 Oretha as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Oretha, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.