Gloria
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "glory" or "glorious".
Name Census estimates that about 199,599 living Americans carry the first name Gloria. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gloria today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gloria births was 1947 (12,661 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gloria. 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
- • Although Gloria is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,737 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Gloria have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
200K
~ 1 in 1,717 Americans
Peak year
1947
12,661 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1997 SSA rank
#654
Tracked since 1881
Gender
Gender distribution for Gloria
Out of the 416,573 babies given the name Gloria since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Gloria as a male name
- Ranked #9,785 in 1997
- 5 male births in 1997
- Peak: 1940 (52 births)
Gloria as a female name
- Ranked #654 in 2024
- 447 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (12,626 births)
Popularity
Gloria: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gloria from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 105,466 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gloria 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 Gloria during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Glorias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Gloria, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,078 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gloria
The name Gloria has its origins in the Latin word "gloria", meaning "glory", "fame" or "renown". It was a title given to the Roman emperors and military leaders who achieved great victories or success. The name gained popularity as a given name during the early Christian era.
The earliest recorded use of Gloria as a personal name dates back to the 4th century AD. Saint Gloria was a young Christian martyr who was tortured and killed for her faith during the Diocletian persecution in 304 AD in Cagliari, Sardinia. Her feast day is celebrated on July 20th in the Roman Catholic Church.
In the Middle Ages, the name Gloria was occasionally used by European nobility and was associated with the concept of heavenly glory and the divine radiance of God. One notable bearer of the name was Gloria of Zweinitz (c. 1130-1196), a German noblewoman and abbess of the Cistercian convent in Zweinitz, Silesia.
During the Renaissance period, the name Gloria gained further popularity, particularly in Italy. Gloria Longo (1552-1624) was an Italian composer and singer, considered one of the first professional female composers of the Renaissance era.
In more recent history, several notable women have borne the name Gloria. Gloria Swanson (1899-1983) was an American actress and producer, best known for her role in the 1950 film "Sunset Boulevard". Gloria Steinem (born 1934) is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist, who played a key role in the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Other famous Glorias include Gloria Estefan (born 1957), the Cuban-American singer-songwriter and actress; Gloria Gaynor (born 1949), the American singer best known for the disco hit "I Will Survive"; and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (born 1947), the former President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gloria
People
Gloria + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gloria 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
Gloria: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gloria?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 199,599 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gloria 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 1,717 US residents.
Is Gloria a common name?
We classify Gloria as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 416,573 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gloria most popular?
The single biggest year for Gloria was 1947, when 12,661 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gloria is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gloria a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Gloria 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.
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.