Gareth
A masculine name of Welsh origin meaning "rough" or "harsh".
Name Census estimates that about 3,728 living Americans carry the first name Gareth. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gareth today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gareth births was 2016 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gareth. 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
3.7K
~ 1 in 91,941 Americans
Peak year
2016
104 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,637
Tracked since 1916
Gender
Gender distribution for Gareth
Out of the 4,347 babies given the name Gareth since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Gareth as a male name
- Ranked #2,637 in 2024
- 50 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (104 births)
Gareth as a female name
- Ranked #6,270 in 1956
- 5 female births in 1956
- Peak: 1956 (5 births)
Popularity
Gareth: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gareth from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 720 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Gareth remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gareth 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 Gareth during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gareths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Gareth, while Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gareth
The name Gareth originated from the Welsh language and culture. It derives from the Germanic elements "gar" meaning "spear" and "rith" meaning "assault" or "prompt." The earliest known spelling was "Gararth" in the 9th century.
In Welsh mythology, Gareth was one of the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He appeared as a character in the 14th century French chivalric romance Lancelot-Grail and the 15th century English Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. Sir Gareth was known as the Beaumains or "Fair Hand" and the youngest son of King Lot and Morgause.
An early recorded bearer of the name was Gareth Ddu, a 14th century Welsh poet and son of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Another was Gareth ap Bleddyn, a 12th century Welsh landowner and nobleman in Powys. Jeuan Gethin, born around 1392, was a Welsh language poet and court poet who used the bardic name Gareth Gethin.
In the 16th century, Gareth Harrison was an English explorer and privateer who sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Roanoke Island in 1585. Gareth Jones (1905-1935) was a Welsh journalist who exposed the Soviet famine genocide in Ukraine and was murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Gareth Edwards (1835-1915) was a Welsh minister, academic and writer who founded the Calvinistic Methodists and published writings in the Welsh language. Sir Gareth Rhys (1916-1992) was a Welsh international rugby player and Royal Navy officer during World War II.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gareth
People
Gareth + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gareth 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
Gareth: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gareth?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,728 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gareth 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 91,941 US residents.
Is Gareth a common name?
We classify Gareth as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,347 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gareth most popular?
The single biggest year for Gareth was 2016, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gareth is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gareth a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Gareth in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.