Gatlin
Masculine
Gatlin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,471 boys against 40 girls since 1880.
Gatlin arrives the way many American boys' names now do — off a surname, out of the record of ordinary families rather than of saints or kings. It is built from sounds every English speaker already owns: the flat a of "cat", then the -lin that closes Colin and Franklin. It is a recent arrival in American given-name records, and it has stayed close to home, strongest across Texas and the industrial Midwest.
How old is the name Gatlin?
Gatlin first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Gatlin is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,400 people named Gatlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gatlin most popular?
Gatlin peaked in 2022, reaching #725 nationally. Today it ranks #1026, 301 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Gatlin appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Gatlin
Gatlin belongs to the large group of American first names that began as last names, following the same road as Mason, Carter and Hudson: a family name lifted onto the front of the birth certificate. The surname itself is old and English-speaking, familiar in the United States from music and from athletics, but the etymologists who trace such names have never agreed on its source. Its life as a given name is much shorter and entirely American, arriving with the broad surname-name wave and taking hold most firmly in Texas and states like Indiana and Ohio. That makes it a name with two very different depths: a long, murky history as a surname, and a short, clear one as a boy's name.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Nobody has settled what Gatlin originally meant. What is documented is the surname: Gatlin is an English-language family name carried by American families for generations, and it is from that surname — not from any word with a translation — that the modern first name comes. Reference works on family names do not agree on how it was formed, so any tidy one-line meaning you find attached to it has been supplied after the fact.
Pronouncing Gatlin
GAT-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first, the a as in "cat". Almost no one hesitates over it once it is written down.
Nicknames for Gatlin
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
- 1981
- Most boys named
- 2022359 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #725reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −18.7%217 in 2025, from 267
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.
Gatlin in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Indiana, Ohio.
Gatlins among us
people named Gatlin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,871 born in 2025 was named Gatlin
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 Mariano test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gatlin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mariano climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mariano's path sketches the road Gatlin is walking now.
Gatlin 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 Gatlin is headed
Gatlin 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.
Gatlin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gatlin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds for American English readers — one look is usually enough, with no competing pronunciation to correct.
- Reads clearly as a surname-name, so it sits naturally beside the Carters and Masons of a classroom rather than seeming newly invented.
- Two syllables ending in -n, the pattern that most popular boys' names in the US have followed for a century.
- Rare enough that a Gatlin will very likely be the only one in his school, while the sound and spelling stay entirely familiar.
- The Gatling gun takes its name from a similar surname, and "gat" is old slang for a handgun. Most people will never make the connection; some will, and it is worth hearing the joke once now rather than being surprised by it later.
- In writing, Gatlin sits one letter away from Caitlin. Expect the occasional misread on a form or a class list, even though the two are said quite differently.
- This is a very young name — its bearers are nearly all children, so there is no generation of adult Gatlins to show how it wears at forty. It also has a recognizable moment attached to it, which may date it the way Dustin or Tyler date theirs.
- It is noticeably more common in some parts of the country than others, so how familiar it sounds will depend a good deal on where the family lives.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Gatlin
Masculine · #1026 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gatlins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,400 people named Gatlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gatlin in 2025?
- Gatlin ranks #1026 among US boy names in 2025, with 217 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gatlin?
- About 1 in every 7,871 US boys born in 2025 was named Gatlin — 217 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gatlin with classmates?
- Gatlin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gatlin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Semaj#1026 · Kaius#1028 · Devon#1028 · Yaakov#1024 · Kooper#1024 · Ivaan#1030 · Kellan#1030 · Shai#1030
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gatlin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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