Geoffrey
Masculine · “peace”
Geoffrey is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 54,394 boys against 140 girls since 1880.
Geoffrey is the older English spelling of a name whose first half has never been identified. Three different Germanic words fit the medieval evidence, and it is likely that separate names simply merged into one.
How old is the name Geoffrey?
Geoffrey first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Geoffrey alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 46,500 people named Geoffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Geoffrey most popular?
Geoffrey peaked in 1975, reaching #167 nationally. Today it ranks #3583, 3,416 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Gaufrid to Geoffrey
The story of Geoffrey
Geoffrey arrived with the Normans and was one of the commonest men's names in England within two generations. Twelfth-century England is full of them, including Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose history of the British kings invented most of what people believe about Arthur, and, two centuries later, Geoffrey Chaucer. English later split the spelling: Geoffrey kept the French look, Jeffrey wrote the sound. America took Jeffrey overwhelmingly, and Geoffrey peaked there in the mid-1960s at a much lower level.
Meaningscholars disagree
peace
The second element is secure: the Germanic frid, 'peace'. The first is disputed between gawia, 'territory', walah, 'stranger' or 'foreigner', and gisil, 'pledge' — giving 'peace of the land', 'peace of the stranger' or 'peace by pledge'. Medieval scribes recorded all three variants, which is itself the best evidence that more than one name is involved.
How the name formed
- Gaufrid
- Geoffrey
Related forms: Geoffroy · Goffredo · Gottfried · Jeffrey
Pronouncing Geoffrey
JEF-ree
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Geo- is said as a single J sound; the spelling is French rather than phonetic.
Nicknames for Geoffrey
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
- 1895
- Most boys named
- 19841,324 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #167reached in 1975
- Change vs 2023
- −41.5%31 in 2025, from 53
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.
Geoffrey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Geoffroy in French — related form
- Goffredo in Italian — related form
- Gottfried in German — related form
- Jeffrey in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Geoffreys among us
people named Geoffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 55,099 born in 2025 was named Geoffrey
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 Ron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Geoffrey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ron climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ron's path sketches the road Geoffrey is walking now.
Geoffrey 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 Geoffrey is headed
Geoffrey 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.
Geoffrey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Geoffrey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nine hundred years of continuous English use, carried by two of the most important writers in the language's history.
- Every major European language has a cousin form.
- The spelling is the historically older of the two and reads as the more formal.
- The spelling gives no help with the pronunciation, so it will be misread by people who have not met it.
- Jeffrey is far commoner in America and will be assumed.
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Geoffrey
Masculine · #3583 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Geoffreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 46,500 people named Geoffrey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Geoffrey in 2025?
- Geoffrey ranks #3583 among US boy names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Geoffrey?
- About 1 in every 55,099 US boys born in 2025 was named Geoffrey — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Geoffrey with classmates?
- Geoffrey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Geoffrey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Robinson#3583 · Kimani#3583 · Emre#3583 · Yoan#3583 · Anirudh#3583 · Sutter#3583 · Kristofer#3583 · Heber#3583
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Geoffrey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Geoffrey and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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