Gussie
Feminine · “venerable”
Gussie is given to both — 13,084 girls and 1,098 boys since 1880. See Gussie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Gussie is a pet form that long outlasted the formal names it was cut from. It served Augusta and Augustus alike, which is why the American record carries it for daughters and sons, and by the time it peaked it was the name people actually used — the full version appearing only on a marriage license or a headstone.
How old is the name Gussie?
Gussie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Gussie alive today was born around 1917, making them about 108 years old. About 1,700 people named Gussie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gussie most popular?
Gussie peaked in 1882, reaching #197 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Latin Augustus and Augusta, a title before a name to Gussie
The story of Gussie
The most famous Gussie changed what women were allowed to wear on a tennis court, and paid for it. Gussie Moran walked onto the grass at Wimbledon in 1949 in a dress cut above the knee over lace-trimmed knickers made for her by Ted Tinling, and photographers spent the fortnight lying on the ground. The All England Club said she had brought vulgarity into tennis. Tinling, who had been the club's official liaison for decades, was not welcome back for more than thirty years. Moran was a good player and a better broadcaster, and she spent the rest of her life being introduced as Gorgeous Gussie, which she never liked.
Meaning
venerable, or consecrated
Behind Gussie stand Augusta and Augustus, and behind both stands a Latin word for something set apart and worthy of reverence. A separate question has hung around the name for eighty years: American English has the phrase gussied up, meaning dressed with more effort than the occasion required, and dictionaries have never been able to source it. The likeliest suggestion is this name — Gussie was slang for an over-dressed man before it was a verb — but likeliest is as far as the lexicographers will go, and they say so plainly. It is a good example of a word history that simply cannot be closed.
How the name formed
- Latin Augustus and Augusta, a title before a name
- Gussie in English and American use as a pet form
- serves both sexes in nineteenth-century records
- American slang gussied up appears in the twentieth century
- a tennis player makes it a household word in 1949
Related forms: Augusta · Guste · Gusten
Pronouncing Gussie
GUSS-ee
Two syllables, hard g, stress at the front, and the double s keeps the vowel short. Nobody has ever had trouble saying it.
Nicknames for Gussie
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 girls named
- 1917364 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #197reached in 1882
- Change vs 1988
- +60.0%8 in 1991, 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.
Gussie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Augusta in Latin — related form
- Guste in German — related form
- Gusten in Swedish — related form
Gussies among us
people named Gussie 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
Gussie has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is warm and informal from the first syllable, and it does not require a formal name standing behind it.
- It works for a daughter or a son, which almost no other name of its era manages so comfortably.
- Gus is available as a short form and is enjoying a revival of its own.
- It reads as a nickname, and some people will assume there is a longer name being withheld.
- The gussied up association is unavoidable for American ears, though most people cannot say why the phrase exists.
- It belongs to the oldest layer of the record and has not yet been picked up by the current fashion for old pet forms.
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What they receive
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Gussie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Gussies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Gussie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gussie in 2025?
- Gussie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Gussie with classmates?
- Gussie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
Grace#38 · Gloria#654 · Gladys#3211 · Geraldine#2438 · Gail#8362 · Gertrude#6546 · Georgia#99 · Gina#2076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gussie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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