Guss
Masculine · “Venerable”
Gus serves Augustus and Gustav and they are not the same name. One is Latin and means venerable; the other is Germanic or Norse and its elements are argued over. The short form is identical and the full names have nothing in common.
How old is the name Guss?
Guss was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Guss alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. About 100 people named Guss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Guss most popular?
Guss peaked in 1883, reaching #359 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Augustus to Guss
The story of Guss
The Latin name was a job description that ate a month. Augustus was a title voted to the first emperor, meaning something like the one worthy of reverence, and it stuck so firmly that every subsequent emperor used it and it became a name. The month we call August was Sextilis, the sixth month of the old Roman year, until the senate renamed it in his honor, following what they had already done for his adoptive father with the month before. Two men therefore have months named after them and everybody else in the calendar is a god or a number, which is a fair summary of how the late republic went.
Meaningscholars disagree
Venerable, or a staff of the Goths
If the full name is Augustus, the Latin means consecrated or venerable and was a title before it was a name. If it is Gustav, the usual reading is something like the staff of the Goths and is not secure. A short form drops exactly the material that would settle it.
How the name formed
- Augustus
- Gus
- Guss
Related forms: Gustav · Augusto
Pronouncing Guss
GUS
One syllable, said exactly as the ordinary spelling. The doubled s keeps it unvoiced, which is a real job: a single s at the end of a short word is often read as a z.
Nicknames for Guss
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
- 192039 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #359reached in 1883
- Change vs 1967
- 0.0%5 in 1982, 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.
Guss in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gustav in Swedish — related form
- Augusto in Spanish — related form
Gusss among us
people named Guss 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
Guss 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
- Short, plain and impossible to mispronounce.
- Two long formal names sit behind it if one is ever wanted.
- The doubled s does genuine work in keeping the consonant unvoiced.
- The single-s spelling is far commoner and will be written instead.
- It is a pet form on a certificate and leaves nothing more formal underneath.
- It is strongly dated to the nineteenth century in American records.
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Guss
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gusss 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 Guss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Guss in 2025?
- Guss is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Guss with classmates?
- Guss 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 Guss? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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