Garrison
Masculine · “protection”
Garrison is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,509 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Garrison is a defended post, and the French behind it is protection — garir, to defend, the same root that gives garret and guarantee.
How old is the name Garrison?
Garrison first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Garrison alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 8,000 people named Garrison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Garrison most popular?
Garrison peaked in 1999, reaching #565 nationally. Today it ranks #1753, 1,188 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From garir to Garrison
The story of Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator in 1831 and campaigned for immediate abolition for thirty-four years; the paper ran until slavery ended. The surname entered American given-name use partly through him. Garrison appears in the American registers steadily and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
protection, defended post
Two routes. From the Old French garison, 'protection' or 'defense', from garir, 'to defend' — the same root as garret and, by a different path, guarantee. Or as a patronymic, son of Garrett, from the Germanic ger, 'spear', and hard, 'brave'. Both feed the surname.
How the name formed
- garir
- garison
- Garrison
Related forms: Garison · Garrett
Pronouncing Garrison
GAIR-ih-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Said identically in every English accent.
Nicknames for Garrison
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 2003286 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #565reached in 1999
- Change vs 2023
- −14.0%92 in 2025, from 107
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.
Garrison in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Garison in French — related form
- Garrett in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Georgia.
Garrisons among us
people named Garrison are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 18,566 born in 2025 was named Garrison
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 Gino test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Garrison's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gino climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gino's path sketches the road Garrison is walking now.
Garrison 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 Garrison is headed
Garrison is easing off slowly — about 21% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Garrison beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Garrison in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The protection meaning is transparent and its link to 'guarantee' is a good detail.
- A genuinely consequential abolitionist carries the surname.
- Three syllables with a front stress, which holds up against a short surname.
- The origin is genuinely split between a word and a patronymic.
- It is an ordinary English military noun.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Garrison
Masculine · #1753 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Garrisons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,000 people named Garrison are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Garrison in 2025?
- Garrison ranks #1753 among US boy names in 2025, with 92 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Garrison?
- About 1 in every 18,566 US boys born in 2025 was named Garrison — 92 in all.
- Will my child share the name Garrison with classmates?
- Garrison will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Garrison
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ames#1753 · Yehoshua#1753 · Salomon#1753 · Akai#1753 · Keyler#1753 · Arley#1753 · Riaan#1753 · Zealand#1753
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Garrison? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Garrison and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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