Coretta
A feminine name of Italian origin meaning "little ring" or "crown".
Name Census estimates that about 1,975 living Americans carry the first name Coretta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Coretta today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Coretta births was 1968 (336 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Coretta. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 173,547 Americans
Peak year
1968
336 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#15,744
Tracked since 1909
Census
Coretta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,022 people with the first name Coretta, which placed it at #7,518 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,518
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,022 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Coretta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coretta is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Coretta described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Coretta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American79.4% · 1,605
- White13.2% · 267
- Two or more races4.1% · 82
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 13
Popularity
Coretta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Coretta from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 692 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Coretta by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Coretta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Corettas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Coretta, while Indiana, Arkansas, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Coretta
The name Coretta is derived from the Italian word "cora," which means "little girl." It has its roots in the Latin word "cor," meaning "heart." The name first emerged in Italy during the Middle Ages and was initially used as a diminutive form of the name Cora.
Coretta gained popularity in Italy during the Renaissance period, particularly among the upper-class families. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the writings of the Italian poet and scholar Petrarch, who lived from 1304 to 1374. He dedicated a few of his sonnets to a woman named Coretta, whom he admired.
In the 16th century, the name Coretta appeared in several religious texts and records, indicating its use among the Christian community. One notable example is Saint Coretta of Modena, an Italian nun who lived from 1544 to 1621 and was known for her charitable works and devotion to the poor.
As the name spread across Europe, it gained popularity in other countries, with variations such as Corette in France and Coretta in Spain. One of the earliest examples of the name in English literature can be found in the play "The Widow's Tears" by George Chapman, which was published in 1612. The play features a character named Coretta.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Coretta:
1. Coretta Scott King (1927-2006), an American author, activist, and civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Coretta LeSeure (1905-1976), an American actress and singer who appeared in several films during the 1930s and 1940s.
3. Coretta Brown (1913-1985), an American blues singer and songwriter, known for her contributions to the Chicago blues scene.
4. Coretta Arle (1908-1977), an Italian actress who appeared in numerous Italian films during the 1940s and 1950s.
5. Coretta Gillard (born 1974), an Australian politician and former Prime Minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013.
While the name Coretta has its origins in Italy, it has gained global recognition and has been used across various cultures and ethnicities, particularly in the United States, where it became more widely known due to the influence of Coretta Scott King.
People
Coretta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Coretta as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Coretta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Coretta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,975 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Coretta going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 173,547 US residents.
Is Coretta a common name?
We classify Coretta as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,433 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Coretta most popular?
The single biggest year for Coretta was 1968, when 336 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Coretta is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Coretta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,022 people with the name Coretta, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,518 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Coretta in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Coretta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Coretta appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,023 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Coretta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coretta is Black at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Coretta most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Coretta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (1,605 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Coretta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Coretta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Coretta in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Coretta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Coretta in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Coretta can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Coretta?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.