# Gretchen (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/gretchen/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | German |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɡɹɛt͡ʃən/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 53,837 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 38 / 53,799 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 30, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 234 | 1,057 |
| 2012 | 203 | 1,207 |
| 2013 | 203 | 1,187 |
| 2014 | 191 | 1,263 |
| 2015 | 162 | 1,429 |
| 2016 | 170 | 1,380 |
| 2017 | 120 | 1,758 |
| 2018 | 96 | 2,032 |
| 2019 | 71 | 2,490 |
| 2020 | 65 | 2,607 |
| 2021 | 61 | 2,797 |
| 2022 | 52 | 3,136 |
| 2023 | 65 | 2,681 |
| 2024 | 45 | 3,474 |
| 2025 | 33 | 4,292 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | 5 | 4,213 |
| 1959 | 5 | 4,222 |
| 1970 | 5 | 5,001 |
| 1974 | 8 | 3,971 |
| 1975 | 9 | 3,760 |
| 1980 | 6 | 5,793 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 3 | 5,201 |
| 2010 | 6 | 3,533 |
| 2012 | 3 | 5,876 |
| 2013 | 6 | 3,536 |
| 2014 | 8 | 2,862 |
| 2017 | 4 | 4,763 |

## People named Gretchen

- Gretchen Whitmer, American politician and attorney (born 1971)
- Gretchen Mol, American actress and former model
- Gretchen Carlson, American broadcast journalist, author, television personality and female empowerment advoc
- Gretchen Walsh, American swimmer
- Gretchen Fraser, American alpine skier (1919-1994)
- Gretchen C. Daily, American biologist
- Gretchen Wilson, American country singer
- Gretchen Bleiler, American snowboarder
- Gretchen Lederer, actress
- Gretchen Egolf, American actress
- Gretchen Corbett, American actress (born 1945)
- Gretchen Peters, American musician

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.