Guido
Masculine · “wood”
Every line of written music in the world sits on a system a man named Guido invented. He was a Benedictine monk in eleventh-century Arezzo, he was tired of teaching chant by rote, and he drew lines on the page so that a singer could see how far up a note was.
How old is the name Guido?
Guido first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Guido alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 1,100 people named Guido are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Guido most popular?
Guido peaked in 1913, reaching #523 nationally. See the whole 1913 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Wido to Guido
The story of Guido
Before Guido of Arezzo, western music was written with marks above the words that showed the shape of a melody without saying how far it moved; you had to have heard the tune already. He put the marks on a staff of lines, gave the lines fixed pitches, and named the notes after the first syllables of a hymn — ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la — which is why the sol-fa syllables exist and why the first one was later changed to do because ut is hard to sing. He claimed the method let him teach in days what had taken years. It did, and it never went away.
Meaningscholars disagree
wood, or guide
The name is Germanic in origin, from an element usually read as wood or forest, and it entered Italian with the Lombards. The resemblance to the Italian word for a guide is an accident, though it has shaped how the name feels for a thousand years.
How the name formed
- Wido
- Guido
Related forms: Guy · Guido · Wido · Guido
Pronouncing Guido
GWEE-doh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Italian says it exactly that way; American English often flattens the opening to GEE-doh.
Nicknames for Guido
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 1921140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #523reached in 1913
- Change vs 2013
- 0.0%6 in 2024, 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.
Guido in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Guy in French — same name
- Guido in Spanish — same name
- Wido in German — related form
- Guido in Portuguese — same name
Guidos among us
people named Guido 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
Guido 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
- It is a standing name across Italy, Spain and Portugal and needs no explanation there.
- Five letters, two syllables and no silent letters in any language that uses it.
- The man behind it changed something that has not changed since.
- In American English the word has been used as an ethnic slur against Italian Americans for decades, and that is the first association for many people here.
- In Italy it carries none of that and is simply an ordinary name.
- American speakers regularly lose the w sound at the front.
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Guido
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Guidos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Guido are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Guido in 2025?
- Guido is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Guido with classmates?
- Guido 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 Guido? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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