Gedalia
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "God has made great".
Name Census estimates that about 112 living Americans carry the first name Gedalia. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gedalia today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gedalia births was 2023 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gedalia. 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 Gedalia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
112
~ 1 in 3,060,307 Americans
Peak year
2023
8 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,193
Tracked since 1977
Census
Gedalia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 178 people with the first name Gedalia, which placed it at #41,266 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
#41,266
National first-name rank
People counted
178
178 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gedalia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gedalia is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (3.4%). 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 Gedalia 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 Gedalia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 154
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 11
- Black or African American3.4% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 3
- Two or more races1.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Popularity
Gedalia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gedalia from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 32 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gedalia 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 Gedalia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gedalias live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gedalia
The name Gedalia has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is a masculine given name derived from the Hebrew root "gadal," which means "to grow" or "to become great." The name is believed to have been used among the Hebrew people as early as the 6th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Gedalia can be found in the biblical Book of Jeremiah, where it refers to Gedalia, the son of Ahikam. He was appointed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar as the governor of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The tragic fate of Gedalia is recounted in the Bible, as he was assassinated by a group of Jewish rebels, leading to further upheaval and suffering for the Judean people.
Throughout Jewish history, the name Gedalia has been carried by various notable individuals. One of the earliest recorded was Gedalia ben Yaakov, a Jewish scholar who lived in the 11th century CE and authored several works on Jewish law and philosophy.
In the 16th century, Gedalia Cordovero, a renowned Jewish mystic and scholar, made significant contributions to the development of Kabbalah, the esoteric Jewish mystical tradition. He was born in 1523 in Safed, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, and died in 1570.
Another prominent figure was Gedalia Jaffe, a Jewish scholar and author who lived in the 18th century. Born in Poland in 1717, he authored several works on Jewish law and ethics, including the renowned "Ketzot Hachoshen," a commentary on the legal code of the same name.
In more recent times, Gedalia Klatzko, a South African-born Israeli educator and author, played an influential role in the development of Hebrew education in Israel. He was born in 1907 and passed away in 1991.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Gedalia, a name deeply rooted in the Hebrew language and Jewish tradition, carrying the meaning of "growth" and "greatness."
People
Gedalia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gedalia 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
Gedalia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gedalia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 112 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gedalia 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 3,060,307 US residents.
Is Gedalia a common name?
We classify Gedalia as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 114 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gedalia most popular?
The single biggest year for Gedalia was 2023, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gedalia is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gedalia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 178 people with the name Gedalia, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,266 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 Gedalia 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 Gedalia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gedalia leans strongly male. 156 people counted with this name were male (87.6%), compared with 22 female bearers (12.4%). 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 Gedalia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gedalia is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (3.4%). 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 Gedalia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gedalia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (154 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 Gedalia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gedalia a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gedalia 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 Gedalia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gedalia 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 Gedalia 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 Gedalia?
Find out how many people share the name Gedalia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.