Gaylon
Masculine · “calm”
Gaylon is given to both — 3,478 boys and 218 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Gaylon sits between two families. On one side is Galen, the name of the doctor whose books governed European medicine for fifteen hundred years; on the other are the American names ending in -lon and -lan that were being built in the same decades. Gaylon can be reached from either direction.
How old is the name Gaylon?
Gaylon first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Gaylon alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 2,100 people named Gaylon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gaylon most popular?
Gaylon peaked in 1940, reaching #673 nationally. See the whole 1940 chart.
Where it comes from
From Galenos to Gaylon
The story of Gaylon
Galen of Pergamon was physician to gladiators and then to emperors, dissected animals because Rome would not let him dissect people, and wrote so much and so confidently that his conclusions were still being taught as fact in European medical schools thirteen centuries after his death. Correcting him was a career-ending move well into the Renaissance. The name reached English as a scholarly borrowing rather than through the church, which is why it was rare until American parents took it up. Gaylon appears in the record early in the twentieth century, alongside Waylon, Marlon and Arlon, which suggests the ending mattered at least as much as the doctor.
Meaningscholars disagree
calm
If the name descends from Galen, the Greek galenos means calm or still, the word used of a quiet sea. If it was built in America from a front syllable and a familiar ending, it has no meaning at all, and the record does not say which happened.
How the name formed
- Galenos
- Galen
- Gaylon
Pronouncing Gaylon
GAY-lun
Two syllables with the weight at the front, the second reduced to a hum, which is why the ending can be written -lon, -lan or -lin.
Nicknames for Gaylon
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
- 194994 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #673reached in 1940
- Change vs 2007
- −28.6%5 in 2018, from 7
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.
Gaylons among us
people named Gaylon 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
Gaylon 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
- Both syllables are ordinary in English and the name is read correctly at sight.
- It has two short forms that are themselves standing names.
- It is genuinely uncommon without looking constructed.
- Gaylen, Galen and Gaylon are all in the record and will be written for you in turn.
- The first syllable carries a modern English meaning it did not have when the name was given.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys in the United States.
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What they receive
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Gaylon
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gaylons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Gaylon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gaylon in 2025?
- Gaylon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gaylon with classmates?
- Gaylon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
George#126 · Gary#1073 · Gregory#593 · Gerald#1204 · Gabriel#37 · Glenn#1443 · Gavin#303 · Gordon#1051
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gaylon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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