Entry № 3799 · Germanic origin

Greta Greta — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ GREH-tah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Germanic
Meaning
"Pearl"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval

A name that means "pearl".

Greta is the short form of Margareta — the German, Swedish, Italian, and Hungarian form of Margaret — ultimately from the Greek margaron, meaning "pearl."

The name has appeared in the U.S. top 1000 intermittently for over a century and is currently rising again, helped along by both Garbo's legacy and Thunberg's contemporary fame.

Pearl — a Germanic name.

The name in its native script.

Greta
Transliteration
Greta
Pronunciation
/ ˈɡrɛt.ə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Greta stands.

Greta does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Gretas before her.

Real people
Greta Garbo
Swedish-American actress. One of the most iconic stars of the silent-to-sound transition era.
1905 – 1990
Greta Thunberg
Swedish climate activist.
born 2003
Greta Gerwig
American filmmaker and actress. Director of Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie.
born 1983
In fiction
Gretel
Sister of Hansel in the German fairy tale.
Brothers Grimm

Names connected to Greta.

The number behind Greta.

6

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Greta reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.