Garrad
A variant of the name Gerald, traced to a Germanic origin meaning "spear ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Garrad. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Garrad today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Garrad births was 1996 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Garrad. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Garrad. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1996
5 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
1996 SSA rank
#9,499
Tracked since 1996
Popularity
Garrad: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Garrad 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 Garrad during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Garrad
The name Garrad is believed to have originated from the English language, with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a variant spelling of the more common name Gerard or Gerald, which derived from the Germanic elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "wald" meaning "ruler" or "brave."
This name gained popularity during the medieval period, particularly in England and other parts of Western Europe. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which documented landowners in England after the Norman Conquest. Here, the name was spelled as "Gerardus."
In the 12th century, a prominent figure bearing this name was Garrad of Cremona, an Italian scholar and translator who played a significant role in introducing Arabic scientific works to the Western world. He was born around 1114 in Cremona, Italy, and his translations of works by renowned philosophers and scientists, such as Aristotle and Ptolemy, greatly influenced the development of European intellectual thought.
Another notable figure was Garrad de Brie, a 13th-century French architect and engineer who oversaw the construction of several important Gothic cathedrals, including Notre-Dame de Paris. He was born around 1220 in Brie, France, and his innovative structural designs and mastery of Gothic architecture left a lasting impact on the architectural landscape of medieval Europe.
In the 15th century, Garrad Mercator, a Flemish cartographer and mathematician, gained recognition for his groundbreaking work in cartography. He was born in 1512 in Rupelmonde, Flanders (now Belgium), and his famous Mercator projection, which represented the Earth's surface on a flat map, revolutionized navigation and map-making techniques.
Moving forward to the 16th century, Garrad Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer and one of the leaders of the Diggers movement. He was born in 1609 in Wigan, Lancashire, and his ideas advocated for the abolition of private property and the establishment of a more egalitarian society based on common ownership and cultivation of land.
While the name Garrad has undergone various spelling variations over the centuries, its historical significance and associations with notable figures across different fields have left an enduring legacy, reflecting the rich cultural heritage and intellectual traditions of Western Europe.
People
Garrad + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Garrad 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
Garrad: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Garrad?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Garrad 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Garrad a common name?
We classify Garrad as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Garrad most popular?
The single biggest year for Garrad was 1996, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Garrad is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Garrad in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Garrad a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Garrad 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 Garrad still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Garrad 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 Garrad 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Garrad?
Find out how many people have the name Garrad on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.