Geraldo
Spanish name originating from the Germanic word "ger" meaning spear, and "walt" meaning rule.
Name Census estimates that about 2,260 living Americans carry the first name Geraldo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Geraldo today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Geraldo births was 1988 (115 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Geraldo. 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.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,661 Americans
Peak year
1988
115 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,887
Tracked since 1948
Census
Geraldo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,308 people with the first name Geraldo, which placed it at #3,759 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
#3,759
National first-name rank
People counted
5.3K
5,308 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
79.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Geraldo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Geraldo is Hispanic at 79.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.7%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Geraldo 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 Geraldo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino79.5% · 4,222
- White12.7% · 673
- Black or African American4.1% · 219
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 150
- Two or more races0.6% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 14
Popularity
Geraldo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Geraldo from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 624 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Geraldo 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 Geraldo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Geraldos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Geraldo, while Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 143 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Geraldo
The name Geraldo finds its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically deriving from the Old German words "ger" meaning spear, and "waldan" meaning to rule or govern. It emerged during the medieval period, around the 6th to 8th centuries, as a personal name commonly used among Germanic tribes in central and western Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus, a collection of historical documents from the region of modern-day Germany and Switzerland, dated to the 9th century. It mentions a nobleman named Geraldus, who was a vassal of the Carolingian Empire.
The name gained wider popularity during the High Middle Ages, particularly in regions influenced by the Normans, who had adopted and spread various Germanic names throughout their territories in France, England, and parts of the Mediterranean.
In religious texts, the name is mentioned in the 12th-century chronicles of the Cistercian Order, referring to a monk named Geraldus who served as an abbot in the monastery of Clairvaux in France.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Geraldo, including:
1. Geraldo the Painter (c. 1025-1109), a Romanesque artist and illuminator of manuscripts from the Abbey of Saint-Aubin in Angers, France.
2. Geraldo de Barri (c. 1146-1223), also known as Gerald of Wales, a medieval chronicler and archdeacon of Brecon in Wales, who wrote extensively about the history and topography of the region.
3. Geraldo Sempavor (c. 1190-1268), a Portuguese nobleman and military leader who played a significant role in the conquest of the Algarve region from the Moors.
4. Geraldo Mercator (1512-1594), a renowned Flemish cartographer and geographer, best known for his pioneering work in creating the Mercator projection, which is still widely used in navigation and map-making.
5. Geraldo Gomes da Silva (1593-1663), a Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary who traveled to Japan and wrote extensively about the culture and traditions of the region during the Edo period.
While the name Geraldo has seen a decline in popularity in recent decades, particularly in English-speaking countries, it remains a common name in various Romance language-speaking regions, especially in Portugal, Spain, and parts of Latin America, where it has maintained a strong cultural and historical significance.
People
Geraldo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Geraldo 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
Geraldo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Geraldo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,260 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Geraldo 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 151,661 US residents.
Is Geraldo a common name?
We classify Geraldo as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,390 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Geraldo most popular?
The single biggest year for Geraldo was 1988, when 115 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Geraldo is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Geraldo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,308 people with the name Geraldo, or 1.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,759 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 Geraldo 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 Geraldo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Geraldo appears almost entirely male. Of the 5,309 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 Geraldo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Geraldo is Hispanic at 79.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.7%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Geraldo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Geraldo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.5% (4,222 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 Geraldo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Geraldo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Geraldo 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 Geraldo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Geraldo 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 Geraldo 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 Geraldo?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.