Name meaning & stats
Gretchen
Gretchen means “pearl” (German origin). 46,698 US babies since 1940, peak 1973.
What it means
“pearl”
GermanWell documented
In US birth records
Peak year: 1973
46,698 US babies were named Gretchen between 1940 and 2025.
Careers
Not enough notable people named Gretchen (or its spelling family) to say anything reliable yet. That's a gap in the data, not the name.
Name twins (peaked around 1973)