Gerard
Masculine · “brave spear”
Gerard is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 58,820 boys against 112 girls since 1880.
Gerard is a brave spear, and it is one of the Norman names that stayed. Two saints and a great many medieval Englishmen carried it, and it produced the surnames Garrett, Jarrett and FitzGerald.
How old is the name Gerard?
Gerard first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Gerard alive today was born around 1956, making them about 69 years old. About 35,500 people named Gerard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gerard most popular?
Gerard peaked in 1954, reaching #177 nationally. Today it ranks #1708, 1,531 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ger + hard to Gerard
The story of Gerard
Gerard came to England with the Normans and was common through the Middle Ages, carried by an archbishop of York and by Gerard of Brogne, the tenth-century monastic reformer. It thinned out and returned in the nineteenth century — the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is its best-known modern bearer. American use rose through the 1930s and peaked in the mid-1950s.
Meaning
brave spear
From the Germanic ger, 'spear', and hard, 'brave' or 'hardy'. The ger element also opens Gerald, Gertrude and Garrett; hard ends Richard, Bernard and Leonard. Both are among the most productive elements in old Germanic naming and the compound is transparent.
How the name formed
- ger + hard
- Gerard
Related forms: Gérard · Gerardo · Gerardo · Gerard
Pronouncing Gerard
juh-RARD
Two syllables, stress on the second, in American use. British speakers often say JER-ard with the stress at the front.
Nicknames for Gerard
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
- 1886
- Most boys named
- 19561,617 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #177reached in 1954
- Change vs 2022
- −25.8%95 in 2025, from 128
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.
Gerard in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gérard in French — same name
- Gerardo in Italian — related form
- Gerardo in Spanish — related form
- Gerard in Dutch — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, Florida.
Gerards among us
people named Gerard are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 17,980 born in 2025 was named Gerard
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 Booker test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gerard's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Booker climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Booker's path sketches the road Gerard is walking now.
Gerard 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 Gerard is headed
Gerard should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Gerard beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gerard in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both elements are documented and the compound means something coherent.
- It is spelled identically in French and Dutch, so it crosses those borders unchanged.
- Garrett and Gerry are two related forms at very different registers.
- The stress falls differently in British and American English.
- Gerald and Gerard are close enough to be confused constantly.
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What they receive
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Gerard
Masculine · #1708 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gerards are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 35,500 people named Gerard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gerard in 2025?
- Gerard ranks #1708 among US boy names in 2025, with 95 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gerard?
- About 1 in every 17,980 US boys born in 2025 was named Gerard — 95 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gerard with classmates?
- Gerard will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gerard
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Antoine#1708 · Kainoa#1708 · Henri#1708 · Azir#1708 · Koast#1708 · Ayansh#1708 · Zuriel#1708 · Marlo#1708
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gerard? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gerard and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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