Rita
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A female given name from the Romance languages, Italian, or Spanish
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɹita/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Rita is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country.
- ITItaly≈1 in 496(inferred from the name graph)
- DEGermany≈1 in 908
- NGNigeria≈1 in 988
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Rita itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- #528 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 547 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 246 (inferred from the name graph)
309,366 people, 2022
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Lithuania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled רוזיטה in BR Brazil and ריטה in LV Latvia.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Short form of Margarita, from Greek margaritēs 'pearl'.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 23 languages in the etymology graph.
How Rita is read(measured from records)
Rita is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English37%
A female given name from the Romance languages, Italian, or Spanish.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Hindi19%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Rita in Hindi.
- Portuguese15%
form of Margharita Margaret (see Marguerite), chosen in particular in honour of a i5th-cent. It. saint who bore the name in this form. Ritch see Rich 526 Ritchard Robinov Ritchard see Richard Roake see Rock Ritters see Rider Roan see Ruane Rival see Reuben
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
- Spanish13%
Diminutive of Margarita.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Rita counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | — | 309,366 | 1 in 684 | 356K | רוזיטה | 7 |
| NG Nigeria | #204 | ≈220,000 est. | ≈1 in 988 | — | Rita | 112 |
| US United States | #246 | 184,218 | 1 in 1.8K | 184K | Rita | 547 |
| IT Italy | #332 | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 496 | 8 | Rita | 129 |
| DE Germany | #208 | ≈88,000 est. | ≈1 in 908 | — | Rita | 214 |
| FI Finland | — | 36,497as Riitta | 1 in 153 | 46K | Rita | 43 |
| HU Hungary | — | 25,764 | 1 in 379 | 26K | — | 6 |
| LT Lithuania | — | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 246 | 18K | — | 5 |
| LV Latvia | #854 | 5,784 | 1 in 325 | 5.8K | ריטה | 40 |
| IE Ireland | #151 | ≈5,100 est. | ≈1 in 1K | — | Rita | 101 |
309,366 people counted by IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror), 2022, counting the spelling rita. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); IBGE — Nomes (census name API); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Registrų centras — top-50 given names; PMLP — Personu vārdi (given names in population register). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Rita is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Short form of Margarita, from Greek margaritēs 'pearl'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In Swedish, Rita är ett italienskt namn, ursprungligen en smekform till Margherita (→ Margareta) och på senare tid även till namn som → Carita, → Marita. Det kan också vara en skrivning för finskans → Riitta. Den amerikanska skådespelerskan Rita Hayworth (1918–87) har troligen bidragit till namnets spridning. I den rikssvenska almanackan 6 maj och i den finlandssvenska 17 februari.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
In French, Forme courte de Margarita; du grec margaritēs, «perle».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Ritab. 1381ITItalian Augustinian nun
- Mercedes of Orléansb. 1860ESnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Spain
- Rita Levi-Montalcinib. 1909ITItalian neurologist (1909–2012)
- Rita Johnsonb. 1913USactress (1913-1965)
- Rita Pavoneb. 1945ITItalian actress and singer (1945-)
- Rita Marleyb. 1946CUJamaican musician
- Mia Martinib. 1947ITnot in their usual nameItalian singer (1947–1995)
- Rita Wilsonb. 1956USAmerican actress, singer and producer
- Rita Orab. 1990GBEnglish-Albanian singer and actress
- Rita PatelINcricketer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 149 sources across 77 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 356K | #124 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 309K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 308K | #91 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 184K | #300 |
| HU Hungary | Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025) | 2025 | 26K | #53 |
| LT Lithuania | Registrų centras — top-50 given names | — | 18K | #43 |
| LV Latvia | PMLP — Personu vārdi (given names in population register) | — | 5.8K | — |
| LV Latvia | PMLP — Personvārdu meklētājs (per-name population-register lookup) | — | 5.7K | #82 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 2.9K | #429 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 2.1K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 1.2K | #91 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 1.2K | — |
Reference works 6
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Rita come from?
- Short form of Margarita, from Greek margaritēs 'pearl'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- What are other forms of the name Rita?
- In the etymology graph, Megan, Peggy and Mae are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Margarita.
- Is Rita a male or female name?
- Rita is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Rita have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 309 thousand people named Rita, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled רוזיטה.
- How common is the name Rita?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 309,366 people named Rita in 2022, about 1 in 684 residents.
- How common is Rita compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Rita is the 151st most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.
- What does the name Rita mean?
- In English, A female given name from the Romance languages, Italian, or Spanish.
- How do you pronounce Rita?
- A machine transcription gives /ɹita/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Rita?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ritaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Rita” — the 151st most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.