Goldie
A feminine English name meaning "the golden one."
Name Census estimates that about 7,388 living Americans carry the first name Goldie. It is a predominantly female name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Goldie today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Goldie births was 1915 (1,068 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Goldie. 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 Goldie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Goldie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 443 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,393 Americans
Peak year
1915
1,068 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2022 SSA rank
#645
Tracked since 1880
Census
Goldie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,844 people with the first name Goldie, which placed it at #3,178 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
#3,178
National first-name rank
People counted
6.8K
6,844 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Goldie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Goldie is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Goldie 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 Goldie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.3% · 5,288
- Black or African American13.2% · 901
- Two or more races3.4% · 234
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 184
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 156
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 81
Gender
Gender distribution for Goldie
Goldie leans heavily female at 98.9% of total registrations, but 443 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Goldie as a male name
- Ranked #9,280 in 2022
- 8 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1916 (22 births)
Goldie as a female name
- Ranked #645 in 2024
- 453 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1915 (1,051 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Goldie leans strongly female. 6,677 people counted with this name were female (97.6%), compared with 167 male bearers (2.4%).
Popularity
Goldie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Goldie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 8,680 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
Goldie 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 Goldie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Goldies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Goldie, while Wyoming, Hawaii, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 541 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Goldie
The name Goldie is an English feminine given name derived from the word "gold," which comes from the Old English word "golde." It was initially used as a nickname or descriptive name for someone with golden-colored hair or a sunny, radiant personality.
The earliest recorded use of the name Goldie dates back to the late 19th century, although it was likely used informally before that time. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Goldie was Goldie Anna Griffith, an American actress born in 1894.
In the early 20th century, the name Goldie gained popularity as a given name, particularly in English-speaking countries. One notable bearer of the name was Goldie Hawn, the American actress, producer, and singer born in 1945. She is best known for her roles in films such as "Cactus Flower," "Private Benjamin," and "The First Wives Club."
Another famous Goldie was Goldie Michelson, a Russian-American painter and sculptor born in 1904. She was known for her abstract expressionist paintings and her work as a member of the American Abstract Artists group.
In the realm of music, Goldie Hawn's daughter, Goldie Jeanne Hawn, better known as Kate Hudson, is an American actress born in 1979. She has starred in numerous films, including "Almost Famous," "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," and "Bride Wars."
Goldie Hill, an American rhythm and blues singer, was another notable bearer of the name. Born in 1933, she was best known for her hit songs "The Loco-Motion" and "He's Gonna Step on You Again."
While the name Goldie has its roots in English, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and languages around the world, often as a nickname or descriptive name for someone with golden-colored hair or a sunny, radiant personality.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Goldie
People
Goldie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Goldie 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
Goldie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Goldie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,388 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Goldie 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 46,393 US residents.
Is Goldie a common name?
We classify Goldie as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38,525 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Goldie most popular?
The single biggest year for Goldie was 1915, when 1,068 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Goldie is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Goldie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,844 people with the name Goldie, or 2.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,178 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 Goldie 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 Goldie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Goldie leans strongly female. 6,677 people counted with this name were female (97.6%), compared with 167 male bearers (2.4%). 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 Goldie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Goldie is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Goldie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Goldie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.3% (5,288 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 Goldie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Goldie a female name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Goldie 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 Goldie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Goldie 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 Goldie 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 Goldie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.