Gerdie
A pet form of the feminine name Gertrude meaning "strength of a spear".
Name Census estimates that about 0 living Americans carry the first name Gerdie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gerdie today is around 0 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gerdie births was 1918 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gerdie. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Gerdie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
0
~ - Americans
Peak year
1918
6 babies that year
Average age
-
1929 SSA rank
#4,862
Tracked since 1911
Popularity
Gerdie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gerdie from the 1910s through to the 1920s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Gerdie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gerdie 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 Gerdie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gerdie
The name Gerdie is a diminutive form of the German name Gertrude, which is derived from the Old German words "ger" meaning "spear" and "drūd" meaning "strength". Gertrude was a popular name among the Germanic tribes during the Middle Ages.
Gertrude was the name of a revered saint from the 7th century, St. Gertrude of Nivelles, who was the abbess of the Benedictine monastery in Nivelles, Belgium. Her life and teachings were recorded in the "Life of St. Gertrude" by a monk named Hubert.
The name Gerdie gained popularity in the 12th century, particularly in the Low Countries and parts of Germany. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gerdie was in a historical record from the city of Cologne, Germany, dating back to 1193.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Gerdie. One of the earliest was Gerdie van der Meer, a Dutch painter born in 1435, known for her religious artwork commissioned by churches in the Netherlands.
Another prominent figure was Gerdie von Buren, a German noblewoman born in 1512, who played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation by providing shelter and support to reformers like Martin Luther.
In the 18th century, Gerdie Müller was a German botanist born in 1743, renowned for her contributions to the study of plant taxonomy and for discovering several new species of plants in the Bavarian Alps.
During the 19th century, Gerdie Willemse was a Dutch writer and activist born in 1823, who advocated for women's rights and education. Her influential work "De Vrouw en Haar Roeping" (The Woman and Her Calling) was published in 1867.
In more recent times, Gerdie Holzhaus was a German athlete born in 1908, who won a gold medal in the high jump event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
People
Gerdie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gerdie 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
Gerdie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gerdie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 0 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gerdie 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 - US residents.
Is Gerdie a common name?
We classify Gerdie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 2.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gerdie most popular?
The single biggest year for Gerdie was 1918, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gerdie is about 0 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Gerdie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gerdie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gerdie in the SSA data are female. 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 Gerdie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gerdie 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 Gerdie 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Gerdie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.