Gaylord
Masculine · “lively”
Gaylord is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,086 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Gaylord means lively. Old French gaillard described someone vigorous, bold and high-spirited — it is the word behind the galliard, a fast Renaissance dance — and it became a Norman nickname and then an English surname. What the name means in modern English is a different matter, and there is no point pretending otherwise.
How old is the name Gaylord?
Gaylord first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Gaylord alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 1,900 people named Gaylord are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gaylord most popular?
Gaylord peaked in 1931, reaching #438 nationally. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gaillard to Gaylord
The story of Gaylord
Nickname surnames were extremely common in Norman and medieval English record-keeping, and they were often blunt: Fairfax for fair hair, Wise, Little, Armstrong, Gaillard for a man with energy. The surname became an American given name in the nineteenth century alongside Milford, Clifford and Elwood, and it was ordinary for two generations. The English language then moved underneath it: the first syllable acquired a settled modern meaning during the twentieth century, and the name effectively stopped being given.
Meaning
lively; bold
Old French gaillard means vigorous, high-spirited or brave, from a root that may be Celtic, and it was one of the standard nicknames a Norman might acquire. English took it as a surname and shortened the sound. The derivation is documented and not disputed. Neither half of the modern English reading — a first syllable that is now a distinct word, and a second that suggests rank — has anything to do with it.
How the name formed
- gaillard
- Gaylord
Related forms: Gaillard
Pronouncing Gaylord
GAY-lord
GAY-lord, two syllables, stress at the front, both halves fully sounded. There is no ambiguity in the spelling and never was; what has changed is what the syllables mean to a listener, not how they are said.
Nicknames for Gaylord
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 1931168 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #438reached in 1931
- Change vs 1992
- 0.0%5 in 1998, 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.
Gaylord in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gaillard in French — related form
Gaylords among us
people named Gaylord 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
Gaylord 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 Old French behind it is documented and the meaning is genuinely cheerful.
- Both syllables are plain and the name is never mispronounced.
- It has a real surname history rather than an invented one.
- In current English both halves of the name read as something the name never meant, and the combination is used as a joke in American popular culture. That cannot be explained away and a child would meet it early — it is the single most important thing to weigh here.
- The name is very strongly associated with the oldest living generations.
- Gaylen and Galen carry a similar sound without the same difficulty.
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What they receive
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Gaylord
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gaylords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Gaylord are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gaylord in 2025?
- Gaylord is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gaylord with classmates?
- Gaylord 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 Gaylord? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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