Gwynn
Feminine · “Welsh "white”
Gwynn is given to both — 1,046 girls and 133 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Welsh gwyn does not simply mean white. It covers white, bright, blessed and holy all at once, which is why it appears in so many names and place names — Gwynedd, Gwenllian, Blodwen — and why translating it as a color loses most of what it says.
How old is the name Gwynn?
Gwynn first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Gwynn alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 900 people named Gwynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gwynn most popular?
Gwynn peaked in 1949, reaching #1767 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 6,118 places below that high. See the whole 1949 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gwyn to Gwynn
The story of Gwynn
Color words carrying a sense of holiness are not unusual: Latin candidus meant shining white and also sincere, giving English candid and candidate, from the white togas worn by office-seekers; and albus meant a dull white against candidus for a bright one, a distinction English lost entirely. Welsh gwyn works the same way, and in names the blessed sense usually dominates — Gwenfrewi, Gwendolen, Gwenllian. The word appears in the country's own place names, including Gwynedd, and in Gwyn ap Nudd, a lord of the otherworld in Welsh tradition. The American figures for Gwynn peak in 1949.
Meaning
Welsh "white, bright, blessed"
From Welsh gwyn, the masculine form, and gwen, the feminine — Welsh changes the vowel to mark gender. The word's range covers physical whiteness, brightness, and a sense of blessed or holy, and the last is often the operative one in personal names. Gwynn as an American women's name uses the masculine Welsh form, which Welsh speakers would note.
How the name formed
- gwyn
- Gwynn
Related forms: Gwen · Gwyn · Gwynn
Pronouncing Gwynn
gwin
One syllable, rhyming with win. The Welsh y in a final syllable is the vowel of tin, not the long ee some English speakers reach for.
Nicknames for Gwynn
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
- 1923
- Most girls named
- 194929 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1767reached in 1949
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%13 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.
Gwynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwen in Welsh — related form
- Gwyn in English — spelling variant
- Gwynn in Cornish — same name
Gwynns among us
people named Gwynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Gwynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gwynn
- #7885
- Gwynn on the 2025 chart
- #937
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gwynn went to 13 girls in 2025, but Gwyn 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 — 6,948 places above the chart.
- Gwynn13
- Gwyn10
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Gwynn 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 Zoila test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gwynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zoila climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zoila's path sketches the road Gwynn is walking now.
Gwynn 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
Gwynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gwynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and unusually rich for a color word.
- Gwen is an immediate and clearly feminine alternative.
- It is short, one syllable and easy to say.
- Gwyn is the masculine form in Welsh; Gwen is the feminine.
- English speakers often lengthen the vowel.
- The 1940s peak dates a bearer strongly.
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What they receive
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Gwynn
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gwynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Gwynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gwynn?
- Gwynn is the most-used spelling in US records — 13 of the 23 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Gwyn.
- How popular is the name Gwynn in 2025?
- Gwynn ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gwynn?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Gwynn — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gwynn with classmates?
- Gwynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gwynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gwynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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