Gregory
Masculine · “watchful”
Gregory is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 711,893 boys against 2,860 girls since 1880. See Gregory as a girl name
A pope saw English children in a Roman slave market, asked who they were, and sent a mission to convert their country. Whether the story is true or a good line invented afterwards, the mission was real, it arrived in Kent, and England has been named after those children in the telling ever since.
How old is the name Gregory?
Gregory was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Gregory alive today was born around 1965, making them about 60 years old. About 586,000 people named Gregory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gregory most popular?
Gregory peaked in 1962, reaching #21 nationally. Today it ranks #593, 572 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gregorios to Gregory
The story of Gregory
Gregory the Great sent Augustine and a party of monks to England at the end of the sixth century, gave them detailed and unusually practical instructions about not destroying the local temples but reusing them, and corresponded with them at length afterwards. The mission worked. More popes have taken this name than almost any other, which is a measure of how the office regarded him, and the name spread through every part of Christendom — east and west alike, which very few names managed after the churches split. The English form is a straightforward borrowing of the Latin, and it has been in use since the Middle Ages.
Meaning
watchful
The Greek verb means to be awake or alert, and the name was a Christian one from the start — a instruction rather than a description, taken from the injunction to stay awake.
How the name formed
- Gregorios
- Gregorius
- Gregory
Related forms: Gregorio · Gregorio · Grigori · Grigor · Gregor
Pronouncing Gregory
GREG-ur-ee
Three syllables with the weight at the front. Italian and Spanish give it four with the stress on the third.
Nicknames for Gregory
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
- 196221,976 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #21reached in 1962
- Change vs 2022
- −20.0%493 in 2025, from 616
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.
Gregory in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gregorio in Italian — same name
- Gregorio in Spanish — same name
- Grigori in Russian — transliteration
- Grigor in Armenian — same name
- Gregor in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Gregorys among us
people named Gregory are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,465 born in 2025 was named Gregory
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 Ralph test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gregory's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ralph climbed just as high around 1914, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ralph's path sketches the road Gregory is walking now.
Gregory 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 Gregory is headed
Gregory 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.
Gregory beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gregory in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a form in every European language, eastern and western alike.
- Greg is one of the most established short forms in English.
- The meaning is short, positive and easy to explain.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the twentieth century in America.
- Gregory and Gregorio will both be offered in bilingual settings.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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Gregory
Masculine · #593 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gregorys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 586,000 people named Gregory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gregory in 2025?
- Gregory ranks #593 among US boy names in 2025, with 493 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gregory?
- About 1 in every 3,465 US boys born in 2025 was named Gregory — 493 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gregory with classmates?
- Gregory will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gregory
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kolton#594 · Jamir#592 · Mohammed#595 · Tru#591 · Louie#596 · Maximilian#590 · Vicente#589 · Kason#597
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gregory? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gregory and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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