Gordon
A masculine English name derived from a Scottish surname meaning "great hill".
Name Census estimates that about 72,073 living Americans carry the first name Gordon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gordon today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gordon births was 1952 (2,835 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gordon. 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 Gordon with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Gordon is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 670 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Gordon have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
72K
~ 1 in 4,756 Americans
Peak year
1952
2,835 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,089
Tracked since 1880
Census
Gordon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 78,484 people with the first name Gordon, which placed it at #674 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
#674
National first-name rank
People counted
78K
78,484 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
26.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gordon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gordon is White at 85.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Gordon 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 Gordon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.7% · 67,251
- Black or African American5.5% · 4,322
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 3,069
- Two or more races2.5% · 1,979
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 1,104
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 759
Gender
Gender distribution for Gordon
Out of the 155,367 babies given the name Gordon since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Gordon as a male name
- Ranked #1,089 in 2024
- 199 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (2,829 births)
Gordon as a female name
- Ranked #11,320 in 1989
- 6 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1929 (31 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gordon appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,487 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Gordon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gordon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 25,829 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gordon 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 Gordon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gordons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Michigan, California recorded the most babies named Gordon, while Delaware, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,910 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gordon
The name Gordon has its origins in the medieval era and is believed to have derived from the Old English word "gord," which means "enclosed area" or "valley." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived in a valley or a protected area.
The earliest recorded use of the name Gordon dates back to the 12th century in Scotland, where it was used as a surname. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Adam de Gordon, a Scottish knight who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
In the 13th century, the name Gordon became associated with the powerful Gordon family, who held lands in Scotland and played a significant role in Scottish history. The family's prominence helped to popularize the name throughout the country.
The name Gordon has been borne by several notable figures throughout history. One of the most famous was George Gordon, Lord Byron, the renowned English poet and leading figure of the Romantic movement. He was born in 1788 and died in 1824.
Another notable bearer of the name was Charles George Gordon, a British army officer and administrator who served in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War. He is best known for his role in the Siege of Khartoum, where he was killed in 1885 while defending the city against Sudanese forces.
In the realm of sports, Gordon Banks was an English footballer and one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He played for England's national team and was part of the squad that won the 1966 World Cup. Gordon Banks was born in 1937 and passed away in 2019.
Gordon Ramsay, the renowned British chef and television personality, was born in 1966. He is known for his fiery temper and his successful restaurants, as well as his numerous television shows, including "Hell's Kitchen" and "MasterChef."
Finally, Gordon Parks, born in 1912 and died in 2006, was an influential American photographer, filmmaker, and writer. He is best known for his powerful photographic work documenting poverty, racism, and social injustice in the United States during the mid-20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gordon
People
Gordon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gordon 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
Gordon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gordon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 72,073 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gordon 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 4,756 US residents.
Is Gordon a common name?
We classify Gordon as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 155,367 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gordon most popular?
The single biggest year for Gordon was 1952, when 2,835 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gordon is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gordon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 78,484 people with the name Gordon, or 25.99 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #674 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 Gordon 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 Gordon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gordon appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,487 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Gordon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gordon is White at 85.7%. The next largest groups are Black (5.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Gordon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gordon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.7% (67,251 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 Gordon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gordon a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Gordon 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 Gordon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gordon 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 Gordon 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 named Gordon?
Want to know how many Americans are named Gordon? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.