Gustave

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Boy · Swedish (probably Old Norse)

Gustave

Say it: gews-TAHV

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Uncertain. From Swedish Gustav, possibly 'staff of the Geats', but other analyses exist.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

Fashionable in 19th-century France and revived recently.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1880s

In the United States

020406018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1885per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 5,386 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1882, about 1 in 2,000 boys
  • 12 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

French

The family of the name

SwedishGustav
GermanGustav
ItalianGustavo

Famous bearers

  • Gustave Eiffel, engineer
  • Gustave Flaubert, novelist

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Well-known works of literature
  • 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.