Gypsy
Feminine · “English Gypsy”
The word Gypsy is a mistake about geography. Medieval Europeans thought the Roma had come from Egypt and called them Egyptians, which wore down to Gypsy. Their language proves otherwise: Romani is an Indo-Aryan language, closely related to the languages of northern India, and the migration west began around a thousand years ago.
How old is the name Gypsy?
Gypsy first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Gypsy alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 1,200 people named Gypsy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gypsy most popular?
Gypsy peaked in 1891, reaching #1213 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,647 places below that high. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Egyptian to Gypsy
The story of Gypsy
The origin question was settled by language. In 1763 a Hungarian theology student in Leiden noticed that Romani speakers he met understood words from Malabar that Indian students had taught him, and the observation was followed up over the next decades by scholars who established the relationship systematically. Romani shares core vocabulary, grammar and sound changes with the Indo-Aryan languages of north-western India, and the strata of loanwords in it, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Slavic, trace the route: out of India, across Iran and Armenia, a long period in Byzantine Greek-speaking territory, then into the Balkans and beyond. It is one of the clearest cases of historical linguistics reconstructing a migration for which almost no documentary evidence exists. The Egyptian story, and the word built on it, had been current for four hundred years by then.
Meaning
English Gypsy, from Egyptian
From a shortening of Egyptian, reflecting a medieval European belief that the Roma originated in Egypt. The belief was wrong: linguistic evidence establishes that Romani is an Indo-Aryan language related to Hindi, Punjabi and Rajasthani, and that its speakers left north-western India around the eleventh century. The word is widely regarded as a slur and Roma is the preferred term. As an American given name it peaks in 1891.
How the name formed
- Egyptian
- Gypsy
Related forms: Gitana
Pronouncing Gypsy
JIP-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. The g is soft. Identical to the common noun.
Nicknames for Gypsy
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 202130 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1213reached in 1891
- Change vs 2023
- −54.2%11 in 2025, from 24
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.
Gypsy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gitana in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Gypsys among us
people named Gypsy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Gypsy
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
Gypsy 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
Gypsy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gypsy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The word is familiar and the history behind it is genuinely interesting.
- It is short and easy to say.
- It has a documented American history as a given name.
- The word is widely regarded as a slur for the Roma people.
- It rests on a factual error about where the Roma came from.
- The clipped form gyp carries a pejorative sense in English.
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Gypsy
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gypsys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Gypsy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gypsy in 2025?
- Gypsy ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gypsy?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Gypsy — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gypsy with classmates?
- Gypsy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gypsy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gypsy? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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