Gwendalyn
Fair and blessed; from the Celtic Welsh words "gwen" meaning fair and "ddolyn" meaning ring or stream.
Name Census estimates that about 1,110 living Americans carry the first name Gwendalyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gwendalyn today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gwendalyn births was 2008 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gwendalyn. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 308,788 Americans
Peak year
2008
48 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,684
Tracked since 1940
Census
Gwendalyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 874 people with the first name Gwendalyn, which placed it at #13,712 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
#13,712
National first-name rank
People counted
874
874 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gwendalyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gwendalyn is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.7% · 627
- Black or African American11.6% · 101
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 78
- Two or more races5.0% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6
Popularity
Gwendalyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gwendalyn from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 342 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Gwendalyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gwendalyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, Texas recorded the most babies named Gwendalyn, while Utah, Illinois, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gwendalyn
The given name Gwendalyn originated from the Welsh language in the medieval period. It is a feminine form derived from the Welsh elements "gwen" meaning fair, white, or blessed, and "dol" meaning ring or circle. The name was initially spelled "Gwendolen" and later evolved into variations like Gwendalyn or Gwendoline.
The earliest recorded use of this name can be traced back to the 12th century in Wales. It gained popularity in medieval literature, particularly in Arthurian romances. One notable character bearing this name was Gwendolen, the wife of Sir Arthur's nephew Ector de Maris, mentioned in the 13th-century French text "Roman de Yder".
In the late 13th century, a Gwendolen or Gwendolina is mentioned as the wife of Robert de Gayton in historical records from Norfolk, England. This provides evidence of the name's usage in medieval England.
Gwendalyn was a relatively uncommon name until the late 19th century when it experienced a revival in popularity. One of the earliest notable individuals with this name was Gwendalyn Brooks (1917-2000), an American poet and teacher who became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950.
Another famous Gwendalyn was Gwendalyn Murphy (1910-1981), an American actress and dancer who performed in Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s.
Gwendalyn Lizarraga (1922-2010) was a Mexican-American actress and singer who appeared in several films and television shows in the 1940s and 1950s, including the popular series "The Life of Riley".
In the field of science, Gwendalyn Watson (1909-1984) was a British mathematician and statistician who made significant contributions to the study of numerical analysis and computational methods.
Gwendalyn Sims (1954-2001) was an American basketball player and coach. She was a pioneer in women's basketball, playing in the Women's Professional Basketball League and later coaching at the collegiate level.
People
Gwendalyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gwendalyn 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
Gwendalyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gwendalyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,110 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gwendalyn 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 308,788 US residents.
Is Gwendalyn a common name?
We classify Gwendalyn as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,190 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gwendalyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Gwendalyn was 2008, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gwendalyn is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gwendalyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 874 people with the name Gwendalyn, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,712 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 Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gwendalyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 875 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Gwendalyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gwendalyn is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (8.9%). 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 Gwendalyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gwendalyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.7% (627 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 Gwendalyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gwendalyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn 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 Gwendalyn?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Gwendalyn at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.