Gladys
Feminine
Gladys is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 266,718 girls against 1,023 boys since 1880. See Gladys as a boy name
Gladys is Welsh, and the Latin explanation attached to it was added later by people who assumed a name that old must come from Rome. Gwladys is recorded in Welsh sources long before anybody connected it to Claudia, and the connection has never been demonstrated.
How old is the name Gladys?
Gladys was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Gladys alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 49,000 people named Gladys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gladys most popular?
Gladys peaked in 1901, reaching #11 nationally. Today it ranks #3211, 3,200 places below that high. See the whole 1901 chart.
Where it comes from
From an old Welsh name of unrecovered meaning to Gladys
The story of Gladys
Gladys Bentley performed in Harlem in the 1920s in a white tuxedo and top hat, sang blues that were too obscene to record as written, played piano loudly enough to be heard over the room, and married a woman in a civil ceremony in New Jersey. She was one of the most successful performers of the Harlem Renaissance and among the most openly lesbian public figures in America. In the 1950s, with the climate changed and the work gone, she published an article saying she had been cured and appeared in dresses. She died at fifty-two.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Welsh name is old and its meaning is not recoverable; a link to a Welsh word for a ruler has been proposed and so has the Latin Claudia, which would mean lame. The Latin reading is the one that appears in name books, and it is a guess made by scholars who worked from Latin outwards. The name reached the rest of Britain in the nineteenth century with the Welsh literary revival and became enormous in America almost immediately.
How the name formed
- an old Welsh name of unrecovered meaning
- scholars connect it to a Latin name much later
- the Welsh revival carries it into English use
- an enormous American wave around 1900
- almost entirely out of use within two generations
Related forms: Gwladys · Gladis · Gladys
Pronouncing Gladys
GLAD-iss
Two syllables, stress at the front. Welsh gives the first syllable a fuller vowel and pronounces the w, which English drops entirely.
Nicknames for Gladys
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19218,814 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #11reached in 1901
- Change vs 2022
- −23.4%49 in 2025, from 64
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.
Gladys in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwladys in Welsh — same name
- Gladis in Spanish — spelling variant
- Gladys in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Gladyss among us
people named Gladys are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 32,801 born in 2025 was named Gladys
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gladys
- #3211
- Gladys on the 2025 chart
- #900
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gladys went to 49 girls in 2025, but Gladis is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 60, which makes it the 900th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,311 places above the chart.
- Gladys49
- Gladis11
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,801 for Gladys itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Gladys 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 Gladys is headed
Gladys 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.
Gladys beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gladys in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, unmistakable and read correctly by everybody at sight.
- It has a genuine Welsh history rather than an invented one.
- It is one of the names of its generation most obviously due for a revival.
- It reads as a great-grandmother's name and the revival has not arrived yet.
- The Latin meaning it is usually given is a guess and not a good one.
- It was enormous once, which means anyone over eighty knew several.
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Gladys
Feminine · #3211 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gladyss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 49,000 people named Gladys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gladys?
- Gladys is the most-used spelling in US records — 49 of the 60 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Gladis.
- How popular is the name Gladys in 2025?
- Gladys ranks #3211 among US girl names in 2025, with 49 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gladys?
- About 1 in every 32,801 US girls born in 2025 was named Gladys — 49 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gladys with classmates?
- Gladys will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gladys
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jalaya#3211 · Quetzalli#3211 · Kristine#3211 · Dhara#3211 · Janelly#3211 · Dariela#3211 · Amyah#3211 · Auri#3211
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gladys? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gladys and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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