Variant of Margaret, from Greek 'margarites' meaning pearl.
Margarette is an elaborated, Latinate variant of Margaret, one of the most storied women's names in the Western tradition. The chain of etymology runs from the Old French *Marguerite* back through Latin *margarita* to the ancient Greek *margaritēs*, meaning pearl — a gem long associated with purity, rarity, and luminous worth. The doubled final syllable lends this spelling an air of continental formality, as though the name arrived in a wax-sealed letter.
The parent name has been borne by queens, saints, and literary heroines across a dozen centuries. Saint Margaret of Antioch, martyred in the third century, became one of the most venerated figures of medieval Christendom. Margaret of Scotland was canonized for her piety and statecraft.
Margaret Cavendish, the 17th-century Duchess of Newcastle, wrote some of the earliest speculative fiction ever composed by a woman. These bearers gave the name an intellectual and spiritual weight that Margarette quietly inherits. As a distinct spelling, Margarette projects an individuality within the tradition — acknowledging the classic while refusing to be entirely ordinary.
It was most common in the United States between roughly 1880 and 1930, appearing on census rolls alongside other elaborately spelled feminine names of that era. Today it is genuinely rare, which makes it a compelling choice for parents who want the timeless pearl association and the full, sonorous sweep of those five syllables, without sharing a classroom roster with three other Margarets.