Guilford
Masculine · “From Guildford”
Guilford is an English place name used as a first name, spelled the American way. It belongs to the young husband of Lady Jane Grey, and to the North Carolina county where four students sat down at a lunch counter.
How old is the name Guilford?
Guilford first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Guilford alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 100 people named Guilford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Guilford most popular?
Guilford peaked in 1890, reaching #739 nationally. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Guildford to Guilford
The story of Guilford
Guilford Dudley, a son of the Duke of Northumberland, married Lady Jane Grey, who was proclaimed queen and held the throne for nine days; both were beheaded after Mary took the crown, and Jane watched his body carried back from the scaffold. In Greensboro, the seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, four Black college students sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth's and would not leave, and sit-ins spread across the South.
Meaning
From Guildford, a town in Surrey
Guilford is a spelling of Guildford, an English place name and surname.
How the name formed
- Guildford
- Guilford
Related forms: Guildford
Pronouncing Guilford
GIL-ferd
Two syllables with the stress on the first.
Nicknames for Guilford
Limited
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
- 1885
- Most boys named
- 192322 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #739reached in 1890
- Change vs 1967
- −16.7%5 in 1973, 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.
Guilford in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Guildford in English — spelling variant
Guilfords among us
people named Guilford 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
Guilford 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
- A real English place name with history.
- Comes with Gil as a ready short form.
- Almost certain to be the only one.
- People will write Guildford.
- It reads as a name of a much earlier generation.
- It may be taken for a surname.
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Guilford
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Guilfords are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Guilford are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Guilford in 2025?
- Guilford is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Guilford with classmates?
- Guilford 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 Guilford? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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