Gerard

given name · French · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Gerard is a given name, most frequently recorded in France, where it is the 43rd most common given name. It appears chiefly in French and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: from Old French/Old Germanic Gerard/Girard, meaning 'spear-brave'; first attested Gerardus, Girardus 1086 DB.

rarermore common
  • MQMartinique1 in 243◐
  • GPGuadeloupe1 in 280
  • FRFrance1 in 292

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈77K ●

across 7 countries

Sources
362 ●

711K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 2.3K ◐

Spain

Spellings & scripts●

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Gérard in CH Switzerland, CM Cameroon.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

from Old French/Old Germanic Gerard/Girard, meaning 'spear-brave'; first attested Gerardus, Girardus 1086 DB

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Gerard is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
FR France#431,805,537529K rec.—379KGerard349
US United States—41,72090K rec.1 in 8K42KGerard362
ES Spain#30522,06923K rec.1 in 2.3K22KGerard151
PH Philippines—15,5016.5K rec.——Gerard79
PL Poland—10,730△3 rec.1 in 3.6K11K—1
CA Canada#78210,59211K rec.—1Gerard119
GB United Kingdom—7,3104.6K rec.——Gerard130
BE Belgium#4604,0937.3K rec.—6.2KGerard109
PE Peru—3,8151.9K rec.——Gerard41
AR Argentina—3,7805.5K rec.—572Gerard51
MX Mexico—3,3683.7K rec.——Gerard82
MQ Martinique#182,66761 rec.—5Gerard16

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • French1.4M53%
  • English756K28%
  • Spanish143K5%
  • Dutch90K3%
  • Western Frisian65K2%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
French1,425,20753%
English755,82328%
Spanish142,7785%
Dutch89,5763%
Western Frisian65,1142%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Gerard is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English given name1.1M records spelled Gerard27 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia

    Languages: English, Dutch, Western Frisian

    Also written Gérard, Gèrard, Gerárd, Gërärd, Gërãrd

  • Polish given name59K records spelled Gerard5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

    Also written 'Gerard, Gérard

  • a separate given name26K records spelled Gerard6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, Netherlands, United Kingdom

    Also written Gérard, Ger-Ard, Gérârd, Gèrard

  • French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name3.1K records spelled Gerard2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

    Also written Gérard

  • Russian given name2.4K records spelled Gerard34 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, United States, Ukraine, United Kingdom

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

    Also written Герард, Gerhard, Жерар, Gerrard, Gérard

  • Thai given name2.1K records spelled Gerard14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand, United States, Laos, Philippines

    Languages: Thai, Lao

    Also written เจอราร์ด, เจอร์ราร์ด, Gérard, เจอรารด์, เจอราร์ดิ

90 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Gerard is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Irish, Germanic ‘spear hard’; introduced by the Normans, linked with St Gerard Majella.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • In English, from Germanic name meaning 'spear' + 'hard'

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • from the personal name Gerard, Gerard, introduced to Britain from France by the Normans; it is composed of the Germanic elements gar, ger ‘spear’, ‘lance’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In English, A male given name from the Germanic languages.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In French, Nom germanique: ger- « lance » + hard- « dur, fort »; saint Gérard, fêté le 3 octobre.

    as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

05001K1.5K2K1900195020001.6K · 1956

Show as table
Gerard in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1886–2025
Yearrecords
18865
18899
18918
18925
18949
189514
189610
18975
18985
18995
190011
190115
19028
190311
190418
190525
190625
190732
190830
190939
191049
191189
1912149
1913201
1914236
1915323
1916359
1917413
1918447
1919410
1920408
1921530
1922542
1923554
1924541
1925554
1926586
1927629
1928594
1929552
1930601
1931551
1932542
1933536
1934545
1935525
1936468
1937478
1938536
1939521
1940553
1941689
1942832
1943770
1944720
1945681
1946884
1947983
1948972
19491,044
19501,160
19511,303
19521,338
19531,366
19541,520
19551,521
19561,617
19571,517
19581,475
19591,399
19601,397
19611,309
19621,121
19631,072
19641,023
1965827
1966795
1967665
1968585
1969543
1970547
1971516
1972399
1973377
1974387
1975399
1976367
1977348
1978337
1979336
1980342
1981316
1982366
1983303
1984336
1985343
1986330
1987314
1988327
1989326
1990350
1991309
1992268
1993250
1994258
1995213
1996195
1997190
1998175
1999175
2000194
2001146
2002156
2003134
2004124
2005113
2006117
2007100
2008126
2009130
2010140
2011172
2012171
2013183
2014202
2015180
2016160
2017161
2018149
2019116
2020119
2021121
2022128
2023130
2024115
202595

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 136 years between 1886–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

190019502000Roland Barthes, b. 1915Gérard Debreu, b. 1921Gérard Mourou, b. 1944François Hollande, b. 1954Mel Gibson, b. 1956Alexandre Desplat, b. 1961Gerard Butler, b. 1969Gerard Way, b. 1977Gerard Piqué, b. 1987Martin Garrix, b. 1996
  • Roland Barthesb. 1915FRnot in their usual nameFrench philosopher and essayist
  • Gérard Debreub. 1921FRFrench economist and mathematician (1921–2004)
  • Gérard Mouroub. 1944FRFrench physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
  • François Hollandeb. 1954FRnot in their usual namePresident of France from 2012 to 2017 (born 1954)
  • Mel Gibsonb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, director, producer and screenwriter (born 1956)
  • Alexandre Desplatb. 1961FRnot in their usual nameFrench film composer (born 1961)
  • Gerard Butlerb. 1969GBScottish actor and film producer
  • Gerard Wayb. 1977USAmerican singer (born 1977)
  • Gerard Piquéb. 1987ESSpanish association football player (born 1987)
  • Martin Garrixb. 1996NLnot in their usual nameDutch DJ and record producer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 109 sources across 57 countries.

Official registers attesting Gerard
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202042K#1,019
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—22K#326
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—22K#144
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20)202611K#114
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names)—9.5K#177
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020109.1K#3,914
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020208.8K#3,911
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020008.6K#3,767
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19913.9K—
BE BelgiumFamilienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register)20082K#520
BE BelgiumStatbel — Noms de famille (family names)—1.7K#636
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—628#2,355

Reference works 8

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
  • Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 885 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Gerard?
We estimate roughly 77 thousand people bear Gerard (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.
In which country does Gerard have the most bearers?
Gerard is most frequently recorded in France, where it is most often spelled gerard.
How common is Gerard compared with other names?
In France, Gerard is the 43rd most common given name of 711,207 given names recorded there.
Is Gerard a male or female name?
Gerard is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Gerard mean?
Recorded meaning: from Old French/Old Germanic Gerard/Girard, meaning 'spear-brave'; first attested Gerardus, Girardus 1086 DB
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/gerard

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gerard” — the 43rd most common given name in France. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Gerard parses inside a full name →