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Help[Facts] Re: Origin of the name of Reatha
in reply to a message by Reatha
It's not necessarily of Cherokee origin even though the namer was Cherokee. My first thought was that it could be a variation of Aretha.
http://wonderingchristine.blogspot.com/
http://wonderingchristine.blogspot.com/
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A derivation from Aretha was my first thought too, but after checking the SSA data I'm not so sure. The name Reatha was on the U.S. top 1000 list off and on between 1900 and 1927. Retha was even more common, appearing consistently from 1893 to 1962, but Aretha did not show up at all until 1962.
My guess is that Retha/Reatha was a variant of Rita, which was popular starting in the late 1800s. It seems quite unlikely that it was derived from a Cherokee or other Native American name. If nothing else, the Cherokee language does not have the sound we spell with "TH."
My guess is that Retha/Reatha was a variant of Rita, which was popular starting in the late 1800s. It seems quite unlikely that it was derived from a Cherokee or other Native American name. If nothing else, the Cherokee language does not have the sound we spell with "TH."
This message was edited 6/11/2011, 10:30 AM
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