Greg
Masculine · “watchful”
Greg is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 77,706 boys against 143 girls since 1880.
Greg is the short form of Gregory, a Greek name that means watchful — and it became one of the most-used papal names in history, carried by sixteen popes, one of whom reorganised the calendar the world still runs on.
How old is the name Greg?
Greg first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Greg alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 63,000 people named Greg are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Greg most popular?
Greg peaked in 1961, reaching #77 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 4,630 places below that high. See the whole 1961 chart.
Where it comes from
From gregoros to Greg
The story of Greg
Gregory was borne by a series of enormously consequential churchmen: Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus among the Greek fathers, Gregory the Great who sent the mission that converted Anglo-Saxon England, and Gregory XIII who introduced the calendar reform of 1582. That made it one of the standard names of European Christianity. English use of the short form as a legal name is twentieth-century and American, rising through the 1950s to a peak in the early 1960s.
Meaning
watchful, alert
From the Greek gregoros, 'watchful' or 'vigilant', built on a verb meaning to be awake. Early Christian writers connected it directly to the instruction in the gospels to stay awake and watch, which is part of why the name became a favorite among clergy.
How the name formed
- gregoros
- Gregorios
- Gregorius
- Gregory
- Greg
Related forms: Grigory · Gregorio · Gregorio · Grzegorz
Pronouncing Greg
GREG
One syllable, both g sounds hard. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Greg
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 19625,365 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #77reached in 1961
- Change vs 2023
- +5.0%21 in 2025, from 20
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.
Greg in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Grigory in Russian — related form
- Gregorio in Italian — related form
- Gregorio in Spanish — related form
- Grzegorz in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Gregs among us
people named Greg are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was named Greg
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Greg
- #4707
- Greg on the 2025 chart
- #902
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Greg went to 21 boys in 2025, but Gregg is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 26, which makes it the 902nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,805 places above the chart.
- Greg21
- Gregg5
About 1 boy in 65,695 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 81,337 for Greg 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
The Alton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Greg's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alton climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alton's path sketches the road Greg is walking now.
Greg 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
Greg beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Greg in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Gregory stands behind it with an unbroken record from the early church to the present.
- One syllable, firm, and never mispronounced.
- Cousins exist across Russian, Polish, Italian and Spanish, so it travels well.
- Greg and Gregg are both established spellings and sound identical.
- As a standalone name it stays informal, with no built-in formal register.
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What they receive
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Greg
Masculine · #4707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gregs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 63,000 people named Greg are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Greg?
- Greg is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 26 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Gregg.
- How popular is the name Greg in 2025?
- Greg ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Greg?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Greg — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Greg with classmates?
- Greg will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Greg
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ole#4707 · Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Homer#4707
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Greg? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Greg and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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