Garry
Of German and English origin, a variant spelling of Gary, meaning spear or lance carrier.
Name Census estimates that about 34,714 living Americans carry the first name Garry. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Garry today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Garry births was 1954 (2,229 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Garry. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Garry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Garry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 179 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Garry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
35K
~ 1 in 9,874 Americans
Peak year
1954
2,229 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,103
Tracked since 1880
Census
Garry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 33,432 people with the first name Garry, which placed it at #1,177 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
#1,177
National first-name rank
People counted
33K
33,432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Garry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garry is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.3%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Garry 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 Garry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.6% · 26,277
- Black or African American14.3% · 4,782
- Two or more races2.8% · 925
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 640
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 578
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 230
Gender
Gender distribution for Garry
Out of the 47,833 babies given the name Garry since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Garry as a male name
- Ranked #5,103 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1954 (2,218 births)
Garry as a female name
- Ranked #9,509 in 1984
- 6 female births in 1984
- Peak: 1957 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garry appears almost entirely male. Of the 33,439 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Garry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Garry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 18,867 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Garry 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 Garry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Garrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Ohio, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Garry, while Wyoming, Nevada, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 878 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Garry
The name Garry has its origins in the Old English language and is derived from the Old Germanic words "gairu" or "gairu" meaning "spear." It was originally a surname given to those who were skilled in the use of spears or who were spearmen by profession.
In the Middle Ages, the name Garry was popular among the Anglo-Saxon and Norman populations of England. It was often spelled as "Gery," "Gerri," or "Garre" during this time period. The name was also found in various ancient texts and records from the 9th to 11th centuries, including the Domesday Book, which was a survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Garry is Gerard of Cremona, an Italian translator and scholar born in 1114. He is known for his translations of many important Arabic scientific works into Latin, including the works of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
Another notable figure with the name Garry was Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer born in 1512. He is famous for creating the Mercator projection, which is a cylindrical map projection that became a standard for navigation and mapmaking.
In the 16th century, Sir Garret Moore, an Irish soldier and statesman born in 1560, played a significant role in the Tudor conquest of Ireland. He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland and was instrumental in establishing English rule in the country.
During the 17th century, Gérard Desargues, a French mathematician and engineer born in 1591, made important contributions to the field of projective geometry. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern projective geometry.
In the 20th century, Garry Kasparov, a Russian chess grandmaster born in 1963, is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. He was the world chess champion from 1985 to 2000 and is known for his aggressive and attacking style of play.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Garry
People
Garry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Garry 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
Garry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Garry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34,714 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Garry 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 9,874 US residents.
Is Garry a common name?
We classify Garry as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47,833 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Garry most popular?
The single biggest year for Garry was 1954, when 2,229 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Garry is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Garry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 33,432 people with the name Garry, or 11.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,177 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 Garry 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 Garry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garry appears almost entirely male. Of the 33,439 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Garry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garry is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.3%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Garry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Garry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.6% (26,277 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 Garry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Garry a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Garry 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 Garry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Garry 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 Garry 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 share the name Garry?
Want to know how many Americans are named Garry? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.