Gerhart
A masculine compound name of Germanic origin meaning "hardy spear".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Gerhart. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gerhart today is around 79 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gerhart births was 1915 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gerhart. 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 Gerhart is about 79 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gerharts were born before 1957.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Gerhart. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1915
14 babies that year
Average age
79
years old
1963 SSA rank
#4,273
Tracked since 1912
Popularity
Gerhart: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gerhart from the 1910s through to the 1960s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 74 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gerhart 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 Gerhart during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gerharts live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gerhart
The given name Gerhart is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old High German elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "hart" meaning "hardy" or "brave". It can be traced back to the 8th century and was initially a compound name used by the Frankish people.
In its earliest recorded forms, the name appeared as "Gerhart" or "Gerhard" in various medieval texts and historical records from the Carolingian Dynasty and the Holy Roman Empire. It was a popular name among the nobility and warrior classes, reflecting the martial connotations of its meaning.
One of the earliest documented individuals with this name was Gerhart the Older, a Frankish nobleman who lived in the late 8th century and served as a Count under Charlemagne. Another notable bearer was Gerhart of Augsburg, a 10th-century Bishop and Saint in the Catholic Church.
During the Middle Ages, the name Gerhart gained widespread usage across Germanic regions, particularly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was often associated with valor and strength, befitting the warrior culture of the time.
In the 11th century, Gerhart von Apolda, a German poet and historian, authored the famous "Life of St. Elizabeth" which chronicled the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. His work is considered a significant contribution to medieval German literature.
Another prominent figure was Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), a German dramatist and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912. He is renowned for his naturalistic plays and is considered one of the pioneers of modern German literature.
Other notable individuals with the name Gerhart include Gerhart Münch (1907-1988), a German conductor and violinist who had a prolific career, and Gerhart Ziller (1919-2008), an Austrian sculptor and artist known for his monumental public works.
While the name Gerhart has its roots in the Germanic cultural sphere, it has also been adopted and used in various other European countries over the centuries, although with varying degrees of popularity and spelling variations.
People
Gerhart + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gerhart 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
Gerhart: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gerhart?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gerhart 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Gerhart a common name?
We classify Gerhart as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 201 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gerhart most popular?
The single biggest year for Gerhart was 1915, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gerhart is about 79 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gerhart a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gerhart 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.