Gaylord
A masculine name meaning "lively peasant", stemming from Old French elements.
Name Census estimates that about 2,081 living Americans carry the first name Gaylord. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gaylord today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gaylord births was 1931 (168 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gaylord. 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
- • The typical person named Gaylord is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gaylords were born before 1962.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 164,707 Americans
Peak year
1931
168 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1998 SSA rank
#4,880
Tracked since 1882
Gender
Gender distribution for Gaylord
Out of the 6,091 babies given the name Gaylord 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.
Gaylord as a male name
- Ranked #10,158 in 1998
- 5 male births in 1998
- Peak: 1931 (168 births)
Gaylord as a female name
- Ranked #4,880 in 1942
- 5 female births in 1942
- Peak: 1942 (5 births)
Popularity
Gaylord: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gaylord from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 1,275 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gaylord 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 Gaylord during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gaylords live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois recorded the most babies named Gaylord, while Kentucky, South Dakota, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 163 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gaylord
The name Gaylord has its origins in the Old French language, derived from the elements "gai" meaning "joyful" and "lord" meaning "master" or "ruler." It emerged as a compound name during the Middle Ages in France, around the 12th or 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gaylord can be found in the "Roman de la Rose," a famous medieval French poem from the 13th century. The name was likely used to represent an idealized image of a cheerful and noble lord or master.
In England, the name Gaylord gained popularity during the Norman conquest and subsequent rule. It was adopted by some Anglo-Norman nobility and appears in historical records from that period, such as the Domesday Book of 1086.
One notable historical figure with the name Gaylord was Sir Gaylord de Laspée, a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He later received land grants in England as a reward for his service.
Another early bearer of the name was Gaylord de Beaumont, a 12th-century Norman nobleman who served as Lord of Beaumont in Normandy and held lands in England.
In the 16th century, Gaylord Traheron was a Protestant reformer and translator who played a role in the English Reformation under King Henry VIII.
Moving into the 17th century, Gaylord Nelson was an English colonist who settled in Virginia in the early 1600s and became a prominent landowner and member of the House of Burgesses.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Gaylord Wilshire was an American businessman and real estate developer who founded the Wilshire Boulevard area in Los Angeles, California. He was born in 1861 and died in 1927.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gaylord
People
Gaylord + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gaylord 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
Gaylord: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gaylord?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,081 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gaylord 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 164,707 US residents.
Is Gaylord a common name?
We classify Gaylord as "Rare". It ranks above 93.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,091 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gaylord most popular?
The single biggest year for Gaylord was 1931, when 168 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gaylord is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gaylord a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Gaylord 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.