Gwendolyn
Masculine · “first part 'white”
Gwendolyn is given to girls far more often — 124,385 girls against 333 boys since 1880. See Gwendolyn as a girl name
Gwendolyn entered the US charts in 1924, peaked at #1992 in 1937, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Gwendolyn?
Gwendolyn first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Gwendolyn alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 200 people named Gwendolyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gwendolyn most popular?
Gwendolyn peaked in 1937, reaching #1992 nationally. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Guendoloena to Gwendolyn
The story of Gwendolyn
The name belongs to Wales, built on gwen, one of the most productive elements in the Welsh naming stock. It reaches the wider record through Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose twelfth-century Latin histories and his Vita Merlini gave the forms Guendoloena and Gwendolen to readers far outside Wales. The nineteenth century revived it in English literature — George Eliot named the heroine of Daniel Deronda Gwendolen Harleth, and Oscar Wilde gave the name to Gwendolen Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest. The -lyn spelling is the form that took hold in the United States, where the name has been in continuous use ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
first part 'white, fair, blessed'; second part unsettled
The first element is Welsh gwen, 'white, fair, holy, blessed' — that part is not in doubt and it appears in many Welsh names. The second element is where scholars part ways: one reading takes it from dolen, 'ring, link, bow', giving something like 'white ring'; another treats the ending as arising from the Latinized form Guendoloena used in medieval texts, in which case it carries no separate meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- Guendoloena
- Gwendolen
- Gwendoline
- Gwendolyn
Related forms: Gwendolen · Gwendoline · Gwendoline · Guendoloena · Gwen · Gwendolynn
Pronouncing Gwendolyn
GWEN-duh-lin
Stress on the first syllable. The middle syllable is usually swallowed to a quick 'duh'; some speakers say GWEN-doh-lin with the o fully pronounced, and both are accepted.
Nicknames for Gwendolyn
High
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 195716 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1992reached in 1937
- Change vs 1971
- +16.7%7 in 1974, 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.
Gwendolyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwendolen in Welsh — same name
- Gwendoline in English — spelling variant
- Gwendoline in French — same name
- Guendoloena in Latin (medieval) — related form
- Gwen in Welsh — related form
- Gwendolynn in English — spelling variant
Gwendolyns among us
people named Gwendolyn 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
Gwendolyn 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
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Gwendolyn
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gwendolyns 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 Gwendolyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gwendolyn in 2025?
- Gwendolyn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gwendolyn with classmates?
- Gwendolyn 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 Gwendolyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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