Boy · Old High German
Gerhard
Say it: GAIR-hart
Meaning
From Germanic ger 'spear' and hart 'hard, brave'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A medieval name revived and very popular in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 2,430 babies given this name since 1882
- At its height in 1885, about 1 in 6,300 boys
- 5 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Gerhardt
| English | Gerard |
|---|---|
| French | Gérard |
| Italian | Gerardo |
| Spanish | Gerardo |
| Dutch | Gerard |
Famous bearers
- Gerhard Richter, painter
- Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Medieval European charters and records
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- 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.