Gareth
Masculine
Gareth is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,389 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Gareth is an Arthurian name, and it is one of the few in that world whose story is about patience rather than glory: a young man who takes a year of kitchen work under an insulting nickname before anyone learns who he is.
How old is the name Gareth?
Gareth first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Gareth alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 3,700 people named Gareth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gareth most popular?
Gareth peaked in 1970, reaching #1080 nationally. Today it ranks #2765, 1,685 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Gaheriet to Gareth
The story of Gareth
Gareth appears in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as the younger brother of Gawain, who arrives at Arthur's court refusing to give his name and is set to work in the kitchens by Sir Kay, who calls him Beaumains — fair hands — as a joke. He serves the year without complaint and then proves himself. Tennyson retold the story in the Idylls of the King, which is how it reached Victorian readers. Wales took the name up as its own in the twentieth century, and it has been thoroughly Welsh in feel ever since, whatever its origin.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No reading is established. Welsh gwaredd, 'gentleness', is the most commonly offered and is a guess rather than a derivation. The name may equally be Malory's reshaping of Gaheriet, a figure in the older French romances whose own name has no agreed source. Welsh has adopted Gareth thoroughly, which leads people to assume a Welsh etymology, but adoption is not origin and this one has not been traced.
How the name formed
- Gaheriet
- Gareth
Related forms: Gaheriet · Gareth
Pronouncing Gareth
GAR-eth
Two syllables, stress on the first, the th said as in think. Welsh speakers give the first vowel a flatter, shorter sound than American English usually does.
Nicknames for Gareth
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 2016104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1080reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- −2.1%46 in 2025, from 47
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Gareth in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gaheriet in French — related form
- Gareth in Welsh — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Gareths among us
people named Gareth are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was named Gareth
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Shigeru test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gareth's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shigeru climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shigeru's path sketches the road Gareth is walking now.
Gareth sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Gareth is headed
Gareth should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Gareth beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gareth in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented literary figure behind it, with a story about persistence rather than conquest.
- Two clean syllables, phonetic spelling, and no silent letters.
- Strongly established in Wales and Britain, so it is a real name rather than a borrowed one.
- Its meaning is genuinely unknown, and the 'gentleness' gloss that circulates is not sourced.
- In the United States it is uncommon enough to be spelled out often, and Garrett will be assumed.
- The short form Gaz belongs to Britain and will sound foreign in American use.
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What they receive
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Gareth
Masculine · #2765 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gareths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,700 people named Gareth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gareth in 2025?
- Gareth ranks #2765 among US boy names in 2025, with 46 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gareth?
- About 1 in every 37,132 US boys born in 2025 was named Gareth — 46 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gareth with classmates?
- Gareth will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gareth
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stephon#2765 · Jafet#2765 · Dwight#2765 · Sheldon#2765 · Mills#2765 · Asante#2765 · Arlin#2765 · Yandel#2765
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gareth? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gareth and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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