Garrett
Masculine
Garrett is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 135,762 boys against 452 girls since 1880.
Garrett began as a surname, and behind that surname stand two Germanic names the Normans carried into England — Gerard and Gerald, both built on the old word for a spear. Medieval English clerks wrote them down as Garrard, Gerrard and Garrett, and the last of those eventually came back around as a first name in its own right. It has been on American records for as long as such records have been kept.
How old is the name Garrett?
Garrett was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Garrett alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 128,000 people named Garrett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Garrett most popular?
Garrett peaked in 2000, reaching #74 nationally. Today it ranks #564, 490 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gerhard to Garrett
The story of Garrett
The spear-names Gerhard and Gerwald were widespread in the Frankish and German-speaking lands well before the Norman Conquest, and Norman speakers brought Gerard and Gerald into England, where scribes flattened both into Garrard, Gerrard and Garrett. In Ireland the Norman-Irish FitzGeralds used the Irish Gearóid, which was anglicized back as Garrett, giving the name a long Irish life alongside its English one. From there it settled in as a hereditary surname across the English-speaking world. Its return as a given name is an American story more than a British one, and it has been recorded here continuously ever since national records began.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Germanic roots meaning "spear" plus either "brave" or "rule"
Garrett is a medieval English form of two different names that had already blurred together by the Middle Ages: Gerard, from ger "spear" and hard "brave, hardy", and Gerald, from ger "spear" and wald "rule". Both are serious readings, and for most bearers the two lines are impossible to separate.
How the name formed
- Gerhard
- Gerard
- Gerrard
- Gearóid
- Garrett
Related forms: Gerard · Gearóid · Gérard · Gerhard · Gerardo · Gerrit
Pronouncing Garrett
GAIR-it
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some speakers use a flatter first vowel, closer to GARR-it; both are ordinary and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Garrett
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20015,061 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #74reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- −20.9%526 in 2025, from 665
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.
Garrett in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gerard in English — related form
- Gearóid in Irish — related form
- Gérard in French — related form
- Gerhard in German — related form
- Gerardo in Spanish — related form
- Gerrit in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, California.
Garretts among us
people named Garrett are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,247 born in 2025 was named Garrett
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 Derrick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Garrett's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Derrick climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Derrick's path sketches the road Garrett is walking now.
Garrett is coming down from a big peak (#74 in 2000). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Garrett is headed
Garrett is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High 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.
Garrett beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Garrett in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A recognizable English spelling that most people can write down on the first hearing, even if the double t occasionally needs confirming.
- Belongs to a large family of names — Gerard, Gerardo, Gérard, Gearóid — so relatives abroad usually have a version they already know.
- Documented continuously in American records from the beginning of those records, and still given to children now.
- Has real short forms in use, including Rett, without requiring one.
- The double consonants invite Garret, Garett and Gerrett, so expect an occasional spelling check on forms and coffee cups.
- It sits close to Gareth and Garrison in sound, and adults will sometimes reach for the wrong one on first meeting.
- Garrett is still a widely borne surname, so it can read as a last name in formal or alphabetical lists.
- Its high tide is behind it: it is far more common among adults around thirty than among children starting school, which means a classroom to himself and a name plenty of grown-ups already know how to say.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Garrett to the vote.
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What they receive
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Garrett
Masculine · #564 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Garretts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 128,000 people named Garrett are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Garrett in 2025?
- Garrett ranks #564 among US boy names in 2025, with 526 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Garrett?
- About 1 in every 3,247 US boys born in 2025 was named Garrett — 526 in all.
- Will my child share the name Garrett with classmates?
- Garrett will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Garrett
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zakai#563 · Andy#565 · Colsen#566 · Mohammad#561 · Zain#567 · Deacon#561 · Rocky#568 · Porter#560
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Garrett? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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