Find out how popular the last name Girard is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Girard.

Girard, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Girard surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Girard in America

Girard is the 2778th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Girard surname appeared 12,975 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Girard.

We can also compare 2010 data for Girard to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Girard

The surname Girard originated in France and is derived from the Germanic personal name Gerard, which is composed of the elements "gair" meaning spear and "hard" meaning hardy or brave. The name first appeared in records during the early Middle Ages, around the 6th or 7th century.

Girard was a popular name among the Franks and later the Normans, who brought the name to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The name appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of landowners commissioned by William the Conqueror.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Girard was in the 11th century, when a Norman knight named Girard de Rouville accompanied William the Conqueror to England. Girard de Rouville later became a landowner in Warwickshire.

In the 12th century, another notable bearer of the name was Girard de Cambrai, a French trouvère and poet. He was born around 1150 and is known for his courtly love poems and chansons de geste.

During the 13th century, a Benedictine monk named Girard de Montreuil served as the abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris from 1238 to 1260.

In the 15th century, Jean Girard (1436-1503) was a French philosopher and theologian who taught at the University of Paris and wrote extensively on logic and metaphysics.

Another prominent figure with the surname Girard was the French writer and philosopher René Girard (1923-2015), who developed the theory of mimetic desire and was a significant influence on literary criticism and religious studies.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Girard

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Girard.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Girard was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Girard has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Girard was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Girard, please contact us.

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