Gorge
Masculine · “farmer”
Take the first e out of George and the g changes its job. In the standard spelling the e that follows it makes it soft; without it, English rules say the g should be hard, and the name becomes a word for a ravine. The spelling is in the record all the same, from the first year of the count.
How old is the name Gorge?
Gorge was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Gorge alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 2,000 people named Gorge are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gorge most popular?
Gorge peaked in 1900, reaching #902 nationally. See the whole 1900 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Georgios to Gorge
The story of Gorge
English uses a following e or i to mark a g as soft, and the rule is one of the few in the language that mostly works: gem and get, giant and give, gin and gun. George relies on it twice over. Remove the first e and the rule points the other way, which makes this one of the very few respellings in the record that changes a consonant rather than a vowel. It survived because everyone reading it knew what name was meant, and because a clerk copying a familiar name does not check the letters.
Meaning
farmer
The Greek compound behind George joins the words for earth and work. This spelling inherits the meaning and loses the letter that told readers how to say the name.
How the name formed
- Georgios
- George
- Gorge
Related forms: Jorge · Giorgio
Pronouncing Gorge
JORJ
One syllable, said exactly like George. Read strictly the spelling would give a hard g at the front, which nobody uses.
Nicknames for Gorge
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 boys named
- 198260 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #902reached in 1900
- Change vs 2014
- 0.0%6 in 2020, from 6
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.
Gorge in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jorge in Spanish — related form
- Giorgio in Italian — related form
Gorges among us
people named Gorge 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
Gorge 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
- Said aloud it is one of the most familiar names in the language.
- It sits behind a name with forms in every European language.
- It is shorter to write than the standard spelling.
- George is the standard spelling and will be restored by every form and autocorrect.
- The spelling is also an English word for a ravine, and readers will see that first.
- It will be read as an error rather than a variant by everyone.
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Gorge
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gorges are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Gorge are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gorge in 2025?
- Gorge is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gorge with classmates?
- Gorge 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 Gorge? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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