Garfield
Field of spears; small enclosure beside a city gate.
Name Census estimates that about 1,816 living Americans carry the first name Garfield. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Garfield today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Garfield births was 1881 (147 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Garfield. 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
1.8K
~ 1 in 188,741 Americans
Peak year
1881
147 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,752
Tracked since 1880
Census
Garfield in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,969 people with the first name Garfield, which placed it at #5,688 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
#5,688
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,969 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
79.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Garfield
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garfield is Black at 79.6%. The next largest groups are White (13.8%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Garfield 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 Garfield at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American79.6% · 2,363
- White13.8% · 409
- Two or more races2.5% · 74
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 66
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 21
Popularity
Garfield: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Garfield from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 932 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Garfield 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 Garfield during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Garfields live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia recorded the most babies named Garfield, while Ohio, North Dakota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Garfield
The name Garfield is an English given name derived from the Old English words "gar" meaning spear and "feld" meaning field, thus translating to "spear field" or "grassy plain." The name likely originated as a descriptive surname referring to a person who lived near a spear-wielding ground or a grassy area.
The earliest recorded use of the name Garfield dates back to the late 11th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Garfield de Oudenarde, a Flemish knight who fought in the Third Crusade under King Richard I of England in the late 12th century.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Garfield de Tregoz was a prominent English landowner and Baron of Gower in Wales. He played a role in the Barons' War against King Henry III in the 1260s.
During the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century, Sir Garfield Stanley was a loyal supporter of the House of Lancaster and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under King Henry VI.
In the 16th century, Garfield Woodall was an English merchant and explorer who traveled to the West Indies and established trade routes with the Spanish colonies.
In more recent history, Garfield Sobers, born in 1936 in Barbados, was a legendary cricketer regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the sport's history. He captained the West Indies cricket team and was knighted for his contributions to the game.
While the name Garfield has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and periods, reflecting its enduring appeal and adaptability over time.
People
Garfield + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Garfield 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
Garfield: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Garfield?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,816 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Garfield 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 188,741 US residents.
Is Garfield a common name?
We classify Garfield as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,561 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Garfield most popular?
The single biggest year for Garfield was 1881, when 147 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Garfield is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Garfield in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,969 people with the name Garfield, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,688 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 Garfield 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 Garfield?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garfield appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,967 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Garfield?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garfield is Black at 79.6%. The next largest groups are White (13.8%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Garfield most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Garfield in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.6% (2,363 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 Garfield in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Garfield a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Garfield 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.
Is Garfield still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Garfield 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 Garfield 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 are called Garfield?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.