Gary
Of English origin, a diminutive masculine name derived from Gerald meaning "spear ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 653,395 living Americans carry the first name Gary. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gary today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gary births was 1952 (38,838 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gary. 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 Gary with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Gary is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,285 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Gary is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Garys were born before 1970.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Gary have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
653K
~ 1 in 525 Americans
Peak year
1952
38,838 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,130
Tracked since 1880
Census
Gary in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 656,596 people with the first name Gary, which placed it at #58 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
#58
National first-name rank
People counted
657K
656,596 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
217.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gary
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gary is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.1%) and Hispanic (2.3%). 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 Gary 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 Gary at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.5% · 574,266
- Black or African American6.1% · 39,868
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 15,039
- Two or more races2.1% · 13,682
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 9,220
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4,521
Gender
Gender distribution for Gary
Out of the 905,223 babies given the name Gary 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.
Gary as a male name
- Ranked #1,130 in 2024
- 187 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (38,753 births)
Gary as a female name
- Ranked #12,623 in 1997
- 6 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1961 (93 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gary appears almost entirely male. Of the 656,593 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Gary: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gary 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 330,692 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
Gary 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 Gary during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Garys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Gary, while Alaska, Delaware, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17,650 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gary
The given name Gary is an English masculine name derived from the ancient Germanic name Gari, which is thought to have originated from the Old English word "gār" meaning "spear" or "lance." This name was popular among the Anglo-Saxons and Normans during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest known references to the name Gary can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record compiled in 1086 for William the Conqueror, which lists several individuals with the name Gari or Garii. However, the modern spelling of "Gary" didn't become common until the 19th century.
In the 11th century, a notable figure named Gary of Bouillon (c. 1060-1100) was a prominent military leader during the First Crusade and played a pivotal role in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. He was later celebrated as a hero in medieval literature and ballads.
During the Middle Ages, the name Gary was also borne by several members of the English nobility, such as Gary de Furnivall (c. 1235-1261), a Baron of Hallamshire, and Gary de Lacy (c. 1277-1311), the Lord of Rathwyre in Ireland.
As the name spread across Europe, it took on various spellings and forms, including Garry, Gareth, and Garin. In the 12th century, a French knight named Garin le Loherain was the protagonist of a popular chanson de geste (epic poem) that recounted his exploits during the reign of Charlemagne.
Another notable figure was Gary Moore (1952-2011), an influential Irish guitarist and singer-songwriter who was highly regarded for his blues and rock performances. His contributions to the music industry earned him widespread recognition and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Other famous individuals named Gary throughout history include Gary Cooper (1901-1961), an American actor who won two Academy Awards and was a prominent figure in Hollywood's Golden Age, and Gary Numan (born 1958), an English singer-songwriter and pioneer of electronic and industrial music.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gary
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Gary Ackerman
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Gary Busey
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Gary Carter
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Gary Chapman
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Gary Cole
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Gary Coleman
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Gary Cooper
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Gary Daniels
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Gary Farmer
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Gary Halvorson
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Gary Hardwick
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Gary Miller
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Gary Neville
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Gary Oldman
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Gary Payton
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Gary Player
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Gary Raymond
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Gary Roberts
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Gary Ross
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Gary Sheffield
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Gary Sherman
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Gary Trousdale
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Gary Walker
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Gary Winick
People
Gary + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gary 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
Gary: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gary?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 653,395 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gary 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 525 US residents.
Is Gary a common name?
We classify Gary as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 905,223 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gary most popular?
The single biggest year for Gary was 1952, when 38,838 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gary is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gary in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 656,596 people with the name Gary, or 217.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #58 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 Gary 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 Gary?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gary appears almost entirely male. Of the 656,593 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Gary?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gary is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.1%) and Hispanic (2.3%). 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 Gary most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gary in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (574,266 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 Gary in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gary a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Gary 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 Gary still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gary 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 Gary 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 Americans are named Gary?
See how many Americans are named Gary on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.