Meaning: Its source is rhetor, a Latin name meaning "Speaker."

Origin: "rhetor."

Alternative Spellings: Reta, Retta and Rheta

Narrative: This is a feminine form of Rhett, a surname of uncertain heritage introduced as a personal name by Margaret Mitchell when she created the romantic anti-hero of her 1936 novel Gone With the Wind, the dashing blockade runner Rhett Butler.

The name's popularity received a further boost when Rhett was portrayed by screen idol Clark Gable in the spectacularly successful 1939 film. A feminine form of the name was sure to follow.