Gwyn
Feminine · “Welsh gwyn”
Gwyn is given to both — 2,115 girls and 299 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Gwyn ap Nudd is the king of Annwn, the Welsh otherworld, and he leads the wild hunt across the sky with a pack of white hounds with red ears. Later tradition put his entrance at Glastonbury Tor, which is one reason the hill collected so much else.
How old is the name Gwyn?
Gwyn first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Gwyn alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 1,800 people named Gwyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gwyn most popular?
Gwyn peaked in 1962, reaching #934 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,523 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gwyn to Gwyn
The story of Gwyn
Gwyn ap Nudd appears in the medieval tale Culhwch and Olwen, where God is said to have placed in him the spirit of the demons of Annwn to prevent the destruction of the world, and in the Black Book of Carmarthen, where he tells a long list of the battles at which he has been present. He is the hunter of souls, leading the Cwn Annwn, the hounds of the otherworld, whose cry foretells a death; the same figure appears in English folklore as the Wild Hunt. From the twelfth century onward he is associated with Glastonbury Tor, where a story tells of St Collen visiting his palace inside the hill and dispersing it with holy water. He also appears in Arthurian material, contending each May Day for Creiddylad in a fight that is to be repeated until the end of the world.
Meaning
Welsh gwyn, white, fair or blessed
Gwyn is Welsh for white, fair or blessed, and is used as a man's name in Wales; the feminine form is Gwen. In American records the spelling is given to girls, following Gwendolyn and Gwyneth. The word also carries a sense of holy or blessed in older Welsh, which is why it appears in saints' names. The American peak is 1962.
How the name formed
- gwyn
- Gwyn
Related forms: Gwyn · Gwen · Gwynn
Pronouncing Gwyn
GWIN
One syllable. Welsh w is a vowel here, so the name is gw plus a short i sound. Gwyn is the masculine and Gwen the feminine in Welsh.
Nicknames for Gwyn
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
- 1922
- Most girls named
- 1962129 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #934reached in 1962
- Change vs 2023
- −23.1%10 in 2025, from 13
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.
Gwyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwyn in Welsh — same name
- Gwen in Welsh — related form
- Gwynn in Cornish — related form
Gwyns among us
people named Gwyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Gwyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gwyn
- #9457
- Gwyn on the 2025 chart
- #937
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gwyn went to 10 girls in 2025, but Gwynn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 23, which makes it the 937th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,520 places above the chart.
- Gwynn13
- Gwyn10
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Gwyn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lahoma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gwyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lahoma climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lahoma's path sketches the road Gwyn is walking now.
Gwyn 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
Gwyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gwyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and four letters, as compact as a name gets.
- The meaning is clear and carries a sense of blessedness.
- Gwendolyn and Gwyneth are available as fuller forms.
- It is the masculine form in Welsh; Gwen is the feminine.
- English readers may not know that w is a vowel here.
- The 1962 peak places it in the mid-century.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Gwyn
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gwyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Gwyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gwyn?
- Gwyn is one of 2 recorded spellings. Gwynn is the more common one — 13 births in 2025 against 10 for Gwyn.
- How popular is the name Gwyn in 2025?
- Gwyn ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gwyn?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Gwyn — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gwyn with classmates?
- Gwyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gwyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gwyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gwyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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