Trude
A feminine name of German origin meaning "strength" or "power."
Name Census estimates that about 185 living Americans carry the first name Trude. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Trude today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trude births was 1957 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trude. 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 Trude is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Trudes were born before 1967.
People living today
185
~ 1 in 1,852,726 Americans
Peak year
1957
19 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1974 SSA rank
#10,160
Tracked since 1940
Census
Trude in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 365 people with the first name Trude, which placed it at #25,801 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
#25,801
National first-name rank
People counted
365
365 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trude
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trude is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Trude 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 Trude at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.5% · 323
- Black or African American4.1% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 6
- Two or more races1.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Trude: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trude from the 1940s through to the 1970s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 111 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Trude 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 Trude during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Trudes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Trude
The name Trude is a feminine given name with Germanic origins. It is a short form of the Old High German name Gertrude, which is derived from the Germanic elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "thrud" meaning "strength" or "force". The name Trude can therefore be interpreted as "strong with a spear" or "strong warrior".
In the Middle Ages, the name Gertrude, and its short form Trude, gained popularity due to the veneration of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, a 7th-century Benedictine abbess and patron saint of travelers and gardeners. Her feast day is celebrated on March 17th in the Catholic Church, further contributing to the name's widespread use in medieval Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Trude is in the 8th century, when a Benedictine nun named Trude von Bamberg lived in the Monastery of St. Michael in Bamberg, Germany. She was known for her piety and devotion to her religious duties.
In the 11th century, Trude von Backum was a German noblewoman and landowner in the region of Westphalia. She was instrumental in the founding of the town of Backum and the local church, which still stands today.
During the 13th century, Trude von Soest was a prominent figure in the Hanseatic League, a powerful economic alliance of trading cities in Northern Europe. She was a successful merchant and ship owner, trading goods throughout the Baltic Sea region.
In the 16th century, Trude Preger was a German Renaissance artist known for her intricate woodcut prints and engravings. She was one of the few female artists of her time to achieve recognition and success.
In the 19th century, Trude Herr was a German playwright and novelist. She is best known for her plays that explored themes of social injustice and the struggle of women in a male-dominated society. Some of her notable works include "Die Opfergabe" (The Sacrifice) and "Frauenrechte" (Women's Rights).
People
Trude + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trude as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Trude: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trude?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 185 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trude 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 1,852,726 US residents.
Is Trude a common name?
We classify Trude as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 272 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trude most popular?
The single biggest year for Trude was 1957, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trude 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 Trude in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 365 people with the name Trude, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,801 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 Trude 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 Trude?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trude leans strongly female. 359 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 4 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Trude?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trude is White at 88.5%. The next largest groups are Black (4.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.6%). 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 Trude most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Trude in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.5% (323 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 Trude in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trude a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Trude 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 Trude still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trude 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 Trude 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 Trude as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.