Galit
A feminine Hebrew name meaning "wave" or "surge".
Name Census estimates that about 135 living Americans carry the first name Galit. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Galit today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Galit births was 1993 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Galit. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
135
~ 1 in 2,538,921 Americans
Peak year
1993
9 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,515
Tracked since 1973
Census
Galit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 502 people with the first name Galit, which placed it at #20,542 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20,542
National first-name rank
People counted
502
502 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Galit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Galit is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Two or More Races (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Galit described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Galit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 444
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 46
- Two or more races1.2% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 4
- Black or African American0.4% · 2
Popularity
Galit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Galit from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 38 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Galit remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Galit by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Galit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Galits live
Origin
Meaning and history of Galit
The name Galit is of Hebrew origin, derived from the Biblical Hebrew word "galut," which means "exile" or "diaspora." The name is believed to have emerged during the time of the Babylonian exile, a significant event in Jewish history when many Israelites were forcibly deported from their homeland to Babylon in the 6th century BCE.
Galit has its roots in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, where the concept of exile is prominently featured. The name may have been given to children born during this period as a reminder of the hardships endured by the Israelites in their forced displacement.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Galit is found in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. The Talmud mentions a woman named Galit, the daughter of Rabbi Yossi, who lived during the 2nd century CE.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Galit. One such person was Galit Dayan (1923-2003), an Israeli writer and journalist, known for her autobiographical works and her marriage to the famous military leader and politician, Moshe Dayan.
Another prominent figure was Galit Chait (born 1964), an Israeli Olympic swimmer who competed in the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the latter.
In the realm of academia, Galit Hasan-Rokem (born 1945) is a renowned Israeli scholar and professor of Hebrew literature and Jewish folklore at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The name Galit has also been associated with some historical figures from the ancient world. One example is Galit, the daughter of Hercules and the goddess Hebe, according to Greek mythology.
Additionally, there are records of a woman named Galit who lived in ancient Rome during the 1st century CE and was known for her involvement in the Jewish community there.
While the name Galit has its origins in Hebrew and is deeply rooted in Jewish history, it has also been adopted by various cultures and communities around the world, with individuals bearing this name across different ethnicities and religions.
People
Galit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Galit as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Galit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Galit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 135 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Galit going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,538,921 US residents.
Is Galit a common name?
We classify Galit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 141 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Galit most popular?
The single biggest year for Galit was 1993, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Galit is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Galit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 502 people with the name Galit, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,542 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Galit in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Galit?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Galit appears almost entirely female. Of the 503 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Galit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Galit is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Two or More Races (1.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Galit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Galit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (444 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Galit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Galit a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Galit in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Galit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Galit in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Galit can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Galit?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Galit, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.