Gerrit

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Boy · Germanic

Gerrit

Say it: KHEH-rit

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Dutch form of Gerard, from Germanic ger 'spear' and hard 'brave, hardy'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

One of the commonest Dutch names of the 17th–19th centuries.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1880s

In the United States

020406018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1881per million babies of that sex
  • 2,820 babies given this name since 1881
  • At its height in 1881, about 1 in 16,800 boys
  • 14 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  3. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
  4. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  5. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

DutchAmerican

The family of the name

Other spellings: Gerret

FrenchGérard
EnglishGerard
GermanGerhard

Famous bearers

  • Gerrit Rietveld, designer
  • Gerrit Dou, painter
  • Gerrit Smith, American abolitionist

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Parish baptism registers
  • Colonial records of the Americas
  • 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.