Gustav
Masculine · “staff of the Goths”
Gustav is the Swedish and German spelling of a name six kings carried, and the man who made it royal took the throne in 1523 after leading a rebellion that ended Danish rule over Sweden.
How old is the name Gustav?
Gustav was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Gustav alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 1,700 people named Gustav are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gustav most popular?
Gustav peaked in 1883, reaching #240 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 3,418 places below that high. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Gautstafr to Gustav
The story of Gustav
Gustav Vasa founded the dynasty that ruled Sweden for a century and a half, and five later kings carried the name, including Gustavus Adolphus, whose intervention in the Thirty Years' War made him one of the most studied commanders in European history. The name spread into Germany and Austria. Swedish and German emigration brought it to America, where the -v spelling appears in nineteenth-century registers and peaked around 1885.
Meaningscholars disagree
staff of the Goths
From the Old Norse Gautstafr. The second element, stafr, 'staff', is secure. The first is usually read as Gautar, the Geats of southern Sweden — the same people behind the name Gothenburg — but a competing account derives the whole name from the Slavic Gostislav. Neither is settled.
How the name formed
- Gautstafr
- Gustav
Related forms: Gustav · Gustav · Gustave · Gustavo
Pronouncing Gustav
GUS-tahv
Two syllables, stress on the first, in German and Swedish. The French Gustave puts the stress on the second.
Nicknames for Gustav
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
- 191697 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #240reached in 1883
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%30 in 2025, from 30
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.
Gustav in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gustav in Swedish — same name
- Gustav in German — same name
- Gustave in French — spelling variant
- Gustavo in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Minnesota.
Gustavs among us
people named Gustav are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Gustav
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Gustav sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Gustav is headed
Gustav should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Gustav beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gustav in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Swedish royal name with an unbroken five-hundred-year record.
- It is spelled identically in Swedish and German, so it crosses that border unchanged.
- Gus is a plain, warm short form available immediately.
- The first element of the compound is genuinely disputed.
- It reads as distinctly continental in English-speaking countries.
- It is period-coded to the nineteenth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Gustav
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gustavs 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 Gustav are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gustav in 2025?
- Gustav ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gustav?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Gustav — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gustav with classmates?
- Gustav will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gustav
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Kordell#3658 · Jimmie#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gustav? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gustav and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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