Gustav

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Vasudev in IN India, AE United Arab Emirates, Basudev in MY Malaysia, NP Nepal, วาสุเทพ in TH Thailand and Basudeb in BD Bangladesh.

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●

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

Gustav is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Finnish given name31K records spelled Gustav4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Güstav, Gustâv

• Czech given name22K records spelled Gustav24 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Poland, Croatia, Slovakia

  Languages: Czech, Polish, Croatian

  Also written Густав, Gustaph, Gusztav, Gustáv, Gusztáv

• Portuguese given name15K records spelled Gustav9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Argentina, France

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French

  Also written Gústav, Gustáv, Güstäv, Güstáv

• a separate given name3.1K records spelled Gustav3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia

  Also written Gustáv, Gusṭav

• Hindi given name738 records spelled Gustav5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, United States, South Africa, India

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Güstav, Gûsṭav, Gustáv

57 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●

Gustav is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

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

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Danish, a male given name of Swedish origin

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Gustav Vasab. 1496SEKing of Sweden from 1523 to 1560
• Gustav II Adolfb. 1594SESwedish king (regent 1611–1632) (1594–1632)
• Karl X Gustavb. 1622SEKing of Sweden (1622-1660)
• Gustav Klimtb. 1862ATAustrian symbolist painter (1862–1918)
• Carl Gustav Jungb. 1875CHSwiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)
• Gustav Stresemannb. 1878DEGerman politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1878-1929)
• Gustav Ludwig Hertzb. 1887DEGerman physicist (1887–1975)
• Martin Niemöllerb. 1892DEnot in their usual nameGerman theologian (1892–1984)
• Gustav Heinemannb. 1899DEGerman politician, President of Germany 1969–1974 (1899–1976)
• Gustáv Husákb. 1913SKCzechoslovak politician, 8th President of Czechoslovakia (1913-1991)

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 572 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Gustav?

We estimate roughly 105 thousand people bear Gustav (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Gustav have the most bearers?

Gustav is most frequently recorded in India, where it is most often spelled vasudev.

Where is Gustav most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Gustav is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 122 people — even though India holds more of our records for it.

How common is Gustav compared with other names?

In India, Gustav is the 466th most common given name of 4,777,337 given names recorded there.

Is Gustav a male or female name?

Gustav 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 Gustav mean?

Recorded meaning: The letter "G" in the Swedish spelling alphabet