Garland
Feminine · “A wreath”
Garland is given to both — 855 girls and 23,857 boys since 1880. See Garland as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Garland is a wreath, and the wreath came first — the word meant a prize and a crown of leaves for several centuries before anybody used it for flowers arranged on a wall.
How old is the name Garland?
Garland first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Garland alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 400 people named Garland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Garland most popular?
Garland peaked in 1898, reaching #1379 nationally. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Garland
The older sense was competitive. A garland was what you won: at a fair, at a race, in a poetry contest, and the word turns up constantly in that sense in medieval and early modern English. Books of songs were called garlands too, on the idea that a collection was a woven thing. Only later did it settle into the decorative sense it mostly has now. What is unusual about it as a name is the route: it is one of a very small number of English common nouns that became men's names without first becoming surnames, which is normally the only way a word gets into the men's name stock at all.
Meaning
A wreath, a prize
The word came into English from French and named the circular arrangement of leaves or flowers given to a victor. It is also an English surname, from a maker or wearer of them, and both routes lead to the same word.
Pronouncing Garland
GAR-lund
Two syllables, stress at the front. The ending is unstressed.
Nicknames for Garland
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
- 1897
- Most girls named
- 192525 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1379reached in 1898
- Change vs 2018
- 0.0%5 in 2023, from 5
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.
Garlands among us
people named Garland are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Garland sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete, pleasant and entirely transparent.
- It has the settled sound of an old American name rather than an invention.
- It is read correctly on sight.
- For many Americans the name belongs to a singer and actress first.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though the boys hold nearly all of it.
- It is a common noun, which some bearers enjoy and others do not.
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Garland
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Garlands are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Garland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Garland in 2025?
- Garland is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Garland with classmates?
- Garland will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
Grace#38 · Gloria#654 · Gladys#3211 · Geraldine#2438 · Gail#8362 · Gertrude#6546 · Georgia#99 · Gina#2076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Garland? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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