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
Census
Gonzales in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 294 people with the first name Gonzales, which placed it at #29,893 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
#29,893
National first-name rank
People counted
294
294 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
69.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gonzales
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gonzales is Hispanic at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and White (6.8%). 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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino69.0% · 203
- Black or African American18.0% · 53
- White6.8% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 7
- Two or more races2.0% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 5
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.
How common was Gonzales in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 294 people with the name Gonzales, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,893 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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gonzales on both sides of the split. Of the 298 people counted with this name, 214 were male (71.8%) and 84 were female (28.2%). 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 Gonzales?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gonzales is Hispanic at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and White (6.8%). 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 Gonzales most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Gonzales in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.0% (203 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 Gonzales in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Gonzales still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gonzales 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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales?
Want to know how many Americans are named Gonzales? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.