Gonzales
Son of Gonzalo, a medieval Spanish diminutive name.
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Gonzales. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gonzales today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gonzales births was 1957 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gonzales. 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 Gonzales is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gonzales' were born before 1969.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Gonzales. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1957
9 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
1961 SSA rank
#2,979
Tracked since 1956
Popularity
Gonzales: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gonzales from the 1950s through to the 1960s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 22 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Gonzales remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gonzales 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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales
The name Gonzales is of Spanish origin, derived from the personal name Gonzalo. This name can be traced back to the Visigothic Germanic name Gundisalvus, which was a compound of two elements: "gund" meaning "battle" and "salv" meaning "whole" or "safe". The name essentially meant "battle safe" or "safe in battle".
The name Gonzalo first appeared in the 9th century and was initially used by the Spanish nobility and aristocracy. It gained widespread popularity during the Reconquista, the period of the Iberian Peninsula's struggle against the Moors between the 8th and 15th centuries. The name was borne by several notable figures during this time, including Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453-1515), known as "El Gran Capitán" (The Great Captain), a renowned Spanish military leader and strategist.
In the 16th century, the name Gonzales emerged as a variant of Gonzalo, particularly in the Americas, where Spanish explorers and settlers brought their names and traditions. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gonzales was Gonzalo Guerrero (c. 1470-1536), a Spanish sailor who shipwrecked off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and lived among the Maya people, becoming one of the first Europeans to integrate into Mesoamerican culture.
Other notable figures bearing the name Gonzales include Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (1495-1579), a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people in present-day Colombia, and Gonzalo de Berceo (c. 1195-c. 1264), a Spanish monk and one of the most important poets of the Middle Ages in the Spanish language.
In the 19th century, the name Gonzales gained prominence with figures like Vicente Guerrero Saldaña (1782-1831), a Mexican revolutionary and president who played a pivotal role in the Mexican War of Independence against Spain, and Antonio Gonzales Saravia (1803-1875), a Chilean military officer and politician who served as President of Chile from 1851 to 1852.
The name Gonzales has also been borne by notable individuals in more recent history, such as Benny Gonzales (1923-1981), an American professional boxer and former world featherweight champion, and Efraín Gonzales (1938-2008), a Peruvian author and poet known for his work in the Spanish avant-garde literary movement.
People
Gonzales + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gonzales 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
Gonzales: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gonzales?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gonzales 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 Gonzales a common name?
We classify Gonzales 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, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gonzales most popular?
The single biggest year for Gonzales was 1957, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gonzales is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gonzales a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gonzales 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.