Girl
Gretchen
Rooted in German, Gretchen is a girl's name that means "German diminutive of Margaret". It is not as common as it was in the 1970s, though it has not disappeared. Today, it is comfortably in the mainstream in the registry. Few names stick around this long: it shows up across almost the entire twelve-decade span this registry covers.
GermanGerman diminutive of Margaret
EtymologyMeaning "pearl"
Births by decade
1900s
479
1910s
1,797
1920s
1,455
1930s
2,994
1940s
5,191
1950s
6,107
1960s
9,745
1970s
11,823
1980s
5,675
1990s
3,099
2000s
3,067
2010s
1,507
Peaked in the 1970s · 52,939 total U.S. births since 1900