Greta
Meaning of Greta
Greta, she tells the tale of a pearl—first cradled in the salt-bright word margarítēs of ancient Greece, then carried by Latin lips as Margarita, and finally polished by Northern breezes into the brisk, two-syllable sparkle that drifts through German parlors as GRAY-tah and English gardens as GREH-tuh. In her shimmering wake follow storied women: silver-screen siren Greta Garbo wrapping the world in velvet melancholy, modern muse Greta Thunberg urging the earth to breathe again, and countless grandmothers who once tucked victory gardens and lullabies beneath wartime moons. Though her popularity in American nurseries has ebbed and flowed like a tide—cresting almost a century ago, retreating mid-century, then gliding gently upward in recent years—Greta remains a jewel cut to catch the light: brief, bright, and enduring. She carries the quiet glamour of old Europe, the tang of Baltic seas, and the warmth of a hearth where olives crackle in a clay dish; and to the parents who choose her, she offers a name that feels both familiar and freshly rinsed by rain, a timeless whisper shaped for storytellers and adventurers alike.
Pronunciation
German
- Pronunced as GRAY-tah (/ˈɡʁeːta/)
English
- Pronunced as GREH-tuh (/ˈɡrɛtə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Greta
| Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist whose 2018 school strike inspired the global Fridays for Future movement, demanding urgent action from world leaders on climate change. |
| Greta Garbo was a celebrated Swedish-American actress renowned as one of Hollywood's greatest for her melancholic and subtle performances. |
| Greta Gerwig is an American actress and director who rose from mumblecore films to major studios and was named to Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2018. |
| Greta Van Susteren is a distinguished American journalist and lawyer who has anchored major news shows on networks like Fox News and now Newsmax. |
| Greta Zimmer Friedman - Greta Friedman was the dental assistant famously misidentified as a nurse in the iconic V-J Day kiss photograph taken in Times Square in 1945. |
| Greta Nissen was a Norwegian-American actress who starred in films and on stage. |
| Greta Magnusson-Grossman was a pioneering Swedish designer and architect who blended European Modernism with Southern California's culture in mid-20th century Los Angeles. |
| Greta Engkvist was a Swedish peace activist and educator who dedicated decades to leading peace organizations and received the Eldh-Ekblads fredspris in 1968. |
| Greta Marie Andersen was a Danish swimmer who won Olympic medals in 1948 and later set world records in marathon swimming in the United States. |
| Greta Ferušić Weinfeld was a Bosnian architecture professor and dean who survived Auschwitz as the only Bosnian woman and was the sole person to endure both Auschwitz and the Siege of Sarajevo. |
| Greta Saur was a German abstract painter based in Paris, known for her lyrical abstraction in the Nouvelle Ecole de Paris style. |
| Greta Georgia Beer, a Romanian Jew, won over $1 billion for Holocaust survivors by advocating against Swiss banks. |
| Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir - Greta Salóme is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, and violinist who represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 and 2016. |
| Greta Titelman is an American comedian, actress, and writer known for roles in Search Party, Los Espookys, and Problemista, and was selected for Comedy Central’s UpNext Showcase in 2019. |
