Jeraldine
Feminine · “spear ruler”
Geraldine was coined in a Tudor love poem. The Earl of Surrey wrote a sonnet sequence in the fifteen-thirties to a woman he called the fair Geraldine — she was Elizabeth FitzGerald, and he made the name out of her surname. Jeraldine writes the opening consonant as English says it.
How old is the name Jeraldine?
Jeraldine first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Jeraldine alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 2,100 people named Jeraldine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jeraldine most popular?
Jeraldine peaked in 1939, reaching #526 nationally. See the whole 1939 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gerald to Jeraldine
The story of Jeraldine
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a poet who helped invent the English sonnet and was executed at thirty for treason. His Geraldine poems were addressed to a girl of about thirteen, which was a literary convention rather than a courtship, and the name he invented for her outlived him by five centuries. It stayed a poetic curiosity until the nineteenth century, when it became an ordinary given name in Britain, Ireland and America. Almost nobody using it knows it was made up on purpose.
Meaningscholars disagree
spear ruler
FitzGerald means son of Gerald, and Gerald is Germanic ger, spear, plus wald, rule — so the meaning arrives through a surname rather than directly. Whether a name built from a family name inherits that family name's meaning is a fair question, and the honest answer is loosely. The J spelling is a purely English development: the G in Gerald is soft, and J is the letter English uses for that sound almost everywhere else.
How the name formed
- Gerald
- FitzGerald
- Geraldine
- Jeraldine
Related forms: Gearóidín · Géraldine
Pronouncing Jeraldine
JAIR-ul-deen
JAIR-ul-deen, three syllables, main stress at the front, a lighter one at the end. Geraldine and Jeraldine are said identically; the G in the standard spelling is soft and does exactly what the J does here.
Nicknames for Jeraldine
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
- 1909
- Most girls named
- 1942188 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #526reached in 1939
- Change vs 2020
- −16.7%5 in 2024, 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.
Jeraldine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gearóidín in Irish — same name
- Géraldine in French — same name
Jeraldines among us
people named Jeraldine 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
Jeraldine 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
The trade-off
- The coinage is documented to a named poet and a named decade, which very few names can claim.
- Gerry and Dina are two short forms that sound nothing like each other.
- The J removes any doubt about whether the opening is hard or soft.
- Geraldine is the standard spelling and this will be corrected toward it constantly.
- Three syllables is long against an already long surname.
- It is strongly associated with the first half of the last century.
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Jeraldine
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Frequently asked
- How many Jeraldines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Jeraldine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jeraldine in 2025?
- Jeraldine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jeraldine with classmates?
- Jeraldine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jeraldine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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