Gordie
Diminutive form of Gordon, a masculine Scottish name derived from a Celtic term meaning "great hill".
Name Census estimates that about 106 living Americans carry the first name Gordie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 72.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Gordie today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gordie births was 1917 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gordie. 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 Gordie is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gordies were born before 1967.
People living today
106
~ 1 in 3,233,531 Americans
Peak year
1917
17 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1966 SSA rank
#3,137
Tracked since 1901
Census
Gordie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 179 people with the first name Gordie, which placed it at #41,133 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
#41,133
National first-name rank
People counted
179
179 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gordie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gordie is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Gordie 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 Gordie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.4% · 135
- Black or African American17.9% · 32
- Two or more races2.8% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Gordie
Gordie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 282 total registrations, 203 (72.0%) were male and 79 (28.0%) were female.
Gordie as a male name
- Ranked #3,678 in 1966
- 6 male births in 1966
- Peak: 1955 (12 births)
Gordie as a female name
- Ranked #3,137 in 1926
- 10 female births in 1926
- Peak: 1917 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gordie leans strongly male. 169 people counted with this name were male (90.9%), compared with 17 female bearers (9.1%).
Popularity
Gordie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gordie from the 1900s through to the 1960s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 62 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Gordie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gordie 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 Gordie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gordies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gordie
The given name Gordie is a diminutive form of the Scottish name Gordon, which is derived from the territorial surname Gordon. The surname Gordon is believed to have originated from the lands of Gordon in the Scottish Borders region. It is thought to have come from the Gaelic words "goirid" meaning "near" and "dùn" meaning "fort" or "hill," referring to a settlement near a prominent fortification.
The name Gordon first appeared in historical records in the 12th century, with the earliest known bearer being Richard de Gordun, who was mentioned in a charter dating back to 1165. The Gordon family played a significant role in Scottish history, with several members holding prominent positions and contributing to major events.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Gordie was Sir Adam de Gordon, who lived in the 13th century and was a trusted advisor to King Alexander III of Scotland. Another notable bearer was Sir John Gordon, who fought alongside Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the early 14th century.
In the 16th century, George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, was a powerful nobleman and a key figure in the Scottish Reformation. His son, George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, was involved in several conflicts with the Scottish monarchy and was ultimately executed for treason in 1563.
Moving forward, Lord George Gordon was a prominent figure in the late 18th century, known for his role in organizing the Gordon Riots in London in 1780, which were aimed at protesting the Papists Act of 1778.
In more recent history, Gordon Cooper, an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, was born in 1927 and played a significant role in the early years of the United States space program.
Overall, the name Gordie has a rich historical background, with its origins rooted in the Scottish Borders region and a long tradition of notable bearers throughout the centuries, spanning from Scottish nobility and military figures to American astronauts and explorers.
People
Gordie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gordie 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
Gordie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gordie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gordie 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 3,233,531 US residents.
Is Gordie a common name?
We classify Gordie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 282 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gordie most popular?
The single biggest year for Gordie was 1917, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gordie is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gordie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 179 people with the name Gordie, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,133 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 Gordie 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 Gordie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gordie leans strongly male. 169 people counted with this name were male (90.9%), compared with 17 female bearers (9.1%). 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 Gordie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gordie is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.9%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Gordie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gordie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.4% (135 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 Gordie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gordie a male name?
Yes, 72.0% of people registered as Gordie 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 Gordie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gordie 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 Gordie 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 have Gordie as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.