Gwynne
Feminine · “white”
Gwynne is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,403 girls against 30 boys since 1880.
Welsh changes a vowel to change a gender. The adjective meaning white, fair or blessed is gwyn when it describes a man and gwen when it describes a woman — same word, one letter apart, and both are all over Welsh naming. Gwynne is the masculine form with an English ending, which is why the record shows it going to daughters and, more rarely, to sons.
How old is the name Gwynne?
Gwynne first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Gwynne alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 1,100 people named Gwynne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gwynne most popular?
Gwynne peaked in 1951, reaching #1339 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,869 places below that high. See the whole 1951 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gwyn to Gwynne
The story of Gwynne
Welsh had no fixed surnames for centuries, and when they were imposed a great many descriptive nicknames froze into place — Gwyn among them, becoming the surname Gwyn, Gwynn, Gwynne and Wynne. The most famous bearer was an actress and royal mistress in Restoration London who is still a byword there. The name moved to the front in the twentieth century and appears in American records from the 1920s, given to both sexes. It is one of the few names where a Welsh grammatical fact is still visible on the page.
Meaning
white, fair, blessed
From the Welsh gwyn, whose feminine is gwen. The word covers white, fair and holy at once, which is why it opens so many Welsh names — Gwendolen, Gwyneth, Winifred and Bronwen all carry it. As a surname it began as a nickname for someone fair-haired or fair-skinned.
How the name formed
- gwyn
- Gwynn
- Gwynne
Related forms: Gwyn · Gwen · Gwynn
Pronouncing Gwynne
GWIN
One syllable, rhyming with win. The final e is silent and does nothing but mark the spelling. Welsh says it the same way, which is unusual — most Welsh names change shape considerably on the way into English.
Nicknames for Gwynne
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
- 195148 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1339reached in 1951
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%6 in 2025, 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.
Gwynne in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gwyn in Welsh — same name
- Gwen in Welsh — related form
- Gwynn in Cornish — related form
Gwynnes among us
people named Gwynne are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Gwynne
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Anise test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gwynne's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anise climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anise's path sketches the road Gwynne is walking now.
Gwynne 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
Gwynne beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gwynne 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 a clean sound that sits well before almost any surname.
- It is a living Welsh word rather than a fossil, so the meaning is still current in the language.
- It genuinely works for a child of either sex, and the grammar behind it explains why.
- There is nothing to shorten, which some families find restful.
- Gwyn, Gwynn and Wynne are all standard, so the spelling will be asked for.
- It is short enough that some people will treat it as a surname or an initial.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a girl, though the Welsh form it uses is the masculine one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Gwynne to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Gwynne
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gwynnes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Gwynne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gwynne in 2025?
- Gwynne ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gwynne?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Gwynne — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gwynne with classmates?
- Gwynne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gwynne
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gwynne? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gwynne and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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