Greta
Meaning and origin
From German Greta, from Margareta. First recorded in Sweden in 1309.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Greta (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Greta has been falling over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2015. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 20 |
| 1999 | 34 |
| 2000 | 27 |
| 2001 | 39 |
| 2002 | 40 |
| 2003 | 44 |
| 2004 | 72 |
| 2005 | 88 |
| 2006 | 82 |
| 2007 | 77 |
| 2008 | 95 |
| 2009 | 130 |
| 2010 | 158 |
| 2011 | 137 |
| 2012 | 150 |
| 2013 | 174 |
| 2014 | 181 |
| 2015 | 192 |
| 2016 | 143 |
| 2017 | 135 |
| 2018 | 149 |
| 2019 | 104 |
| 2020 | 39 |
| 2021 | 38 |
| 2022 | 31 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 11,638 |
| 2000 | 11,053 |
| 2001 | 10,408 |
| 2002 | 9,810 |
| 2003 | 9,285 |
| 2004 | 8,758 |
| 2005 | 8,269 |
| 2006 | 7,819 |
| 2007 | 7,334 |
| 2008 | 6,904 |
| 2009 | 6,567 |
| 2010 | 6,247 |
| 2011 | 5,942 |
| 2012 | 5,671 |
| 2013 | 5,467 |
| 2014 | 5,292 |
| 2015 | 5,178 |
| 2016 | 5,052 |
| 2017 | 4,930 |
| 2018 | 4,824 |
| 2019 | 4,717 |
| 2020 | 4,577 |
Greta in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Greta.Hi! My name is Greta.
- Greta har bott i Uppsala i tre år.Greta has lived in Uppsala for three years.
- Jag ska fika med Greta i eftermiddag.I'm having coffee with Greta this afternoon.
- Gretas mamma är lärare.Greta's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Gretas mamma is Greta's mum.
More names
Questions about Greta
How do you pronounce Greta in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Greta from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Greta mean?
From German Greta, from Margareta. First recorded in Sweden in 1309.
How popular is Greta in Sweden?
31 babies were named Greta in 2022. In 2020, 4,577 people in Sweden had Greta as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been falling lately and peaked in 2015 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.