Ger
A warrior or spearman in Germanic languages.
Name Census estimates that about 457 living Americans carry the first name Ger. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Ger today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ger births was 1991 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ger. 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 Ger with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
457
~ 1 in 750,009 Americans
Peak year
1991
38 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2006 SSA rank
#9,916
Tracked since 1980
Census
Ger in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,204 people with the first name Ger, which placed it at #10,871 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
#10,871
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,204 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ger
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ger is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.5%. The next largest groups are White (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.1%). 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 Ger 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 Ger at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander87.5% · 1,053
- White6.7% · 81
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 37
- Black or African American1.6% · 19
- Two or more races1.1% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Ger
Ger leans heavily male at 81.4% of total registrations, but 88 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ger as a male name
- Ranked #9,916 in 2006
- 7 male births in 2006
- Peak: 1991 (33 births)
Ger as a female name
- Ranked #12,629 in 1997
- 6 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1992 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ger on both sides of the split. Of the 1,192 people counted with this name, 906 were male (76.0%) and 286 were female (24.0%).
Popularity
Ger: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ger from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 269 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ger 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 Ger during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Minnesota, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Ger, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 93 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ger
The name Ger originates from the Old German language, where it was a short form of names like Gerhard or Gerwin. These names were derived from the Germanic elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "hard" or "win" meaning "friend" or "protector." The name Ger can therefore be interpreted as meaning "spear protector" or "spear friend."
Ger was a common name among the early Germanic tribes of central and northern Europe, particularly during the Migration Period of the 4th to 6th centuries AD. It was widely used by the Franks, Saxons, and other groups that settled across what is now Germany, France, and the Low Countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ger can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus, a collection of medieval documents from the Rhineland region of Germany. In a charter dated 778 AD, a man named Ger is listed as a witness to a land transaction.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Ger remained popular among the nobility and commoners alike across Germanic-speaking regions of Europe. Notable historical figures who bore this name include Ger of Oudenaarde, a Flemish knight who fought in the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302.
In the 16th century, Ger Groote (1340-1384) was a Dutch Catholic deacon and the founder of the Brethren of the Common Life, a religious community dedicated to spiritual renewal and education. His followers, known as the Devotio Moderna, had a significant influence on the intellectual and cultural life of the Low Countries.
Another prominent figure was Ger Thooft (1542-1597), a Dutch Catholic priest and theologian who became the Bishop of Leeuwarden. He played a crucial role in the religious conflicts that erupted during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule.
In more recent history, Ger van Elk (1903-1998) was a Dutch painter and graphic artist who was part of the Amsterdam Impressionist movement. His vibrant landscapes and cityscapes are highly regarded and can be found in numerous museum collections.
While the name Ger has fallen out of common usage in many parts of Europe, it remains a recognizable name with deep historical roots in the Germanic cultural tradition.
People
Ger + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ger 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
Ger: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ger?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 457 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ger 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 750,009 US residents.
Is Ger a common name?
We classify Ger as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 473 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ger most popular?
The single biggest year for Ger was 1991, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ger is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ger in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,204 people with the name Ger, or 0.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,871 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 Ger 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 Ger?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ger on both sides of the split. Of the 1,192 people counted with this name, 906 were male (76.0%) and 286 were female (24.0%). 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 Ger?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ger is Asian/Pacific Islander at 87.5%. The next largest groups are White (6.7%) and Hispanic (3.1%). 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 Ger most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Ger in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (1,053 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 Ger in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ger a male name?
Yes, 81.4% of people registered as Ger 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 Ger still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ger 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 Ger 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 Ger?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.