Boy · Germanic, through Norman French
Gerald
Say it: JER-uld
Meaning
From Germanic ger 'spear' and wald 'rule'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Kept alive in Ireland by the FitzGerald family and revived in English in the 19th century.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1930s
In the United States
- 450,339 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1939, about 1 in 110 boys
- 225 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Gerry, Jerry
| German | Gerold |
|---|---|
| French | Géraud |
| Italian | Giraldo |
| Spanish | Giraldo |
| Irish | Gearóid |
Famous bearers
- Gerald of Wales, chronicler
- Gerald Ford, U.S. president
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Domesday Book (1086) source
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.