Gurney
Masculine
Gurney is an English surname used as a first name, and it has given English two quite different objects. One is in every hospital in America. The other briefly carried passengers down English roads at fifteen miles an hour, half a century before cars.
How old is the name Gurney?
Gurney first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Gurney alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 200 people named Gurney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gurney most popular?
Gurney peaked in 1894, reaching #857 nationally. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Gurney
In American hospitals a wheeled stretcher is a gurney, and the word is usually traced to a man of that name who patented a wheeled cot in the late nineteenth century. Whether it is really his name or a coincidence has been argued, which is the normal condition of words like this. The other Gurney is better documented. Goldsworthy Gurney built steam carriages in the eighteen-twenties and ran them on public roads between English towns, carrying passengers at speeds that alarmed everybody, until punitive tolls and the arrival of the railways finished the business. He also invented a lamp bright enough to light the House of Commons and a stove that kept cathedrals warm for a century. Almost nobody has heard of him.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The surname is generally traced to a Norman place name, and the identification is not certain. As an American first name it appears without explanation, in the ordinary pattern of surnames moving into front position.
Pronouncing Gurney
GUR-nee
Two syllables with the stress in front. Nothing in it invites hesitation.
Nicknames for Gurney
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
- 1890
- Most boys named
- 192826 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #857reached in 1894
- Change vs 1966
- 0.0%5 in 1969, from 5
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.
Gurneys among us
people named Gurney 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
Gurney 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 read correctly at first sight and never needs spelling out loud.
- It sits in the familiar family of English surnames used as first names.
- Two syllables with a strong front stress carry well across a room.
- In American hospitals the word names a wheeled stretcher, and anybody in medicine will make that connection immediately.
- It reads as a surname to most listeners, which suits some families and not others.
- No origin is documented for the first name, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
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Gurney
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gurneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Gurney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gurney in 2025?
- Gurney is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gurney with classmates?
- Gurney 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 Gurney? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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