Fitzgerald
Son of the descendant from the redbearded man in Gaelic.
Name Census estimates that about 1,762 living Americans carry the first name Fitzgerald. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fitzgerald today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fitzgerald births was 1964 (125 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fitzgerald. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Fitzgerald with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 194,526 Americans
Peak year
1964
125 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,239
Tracked since 1919
Census
Fitzgerald in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,558 people with the first name Fitzgerald, which placed it at #9,086 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#9,086
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,558 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fitzgerald
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fitzgerald is Black at 48.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.4%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Fitzgerald described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Fitzgerald at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.8% · 761
- White33.4% · 521
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 128
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 75
- Two or more races3.3% · 51
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 22
Popularity
Fitzgerald: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fitzgerald from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 551 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Fitzgerald remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fitzgerald by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Fitzgerald during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fitzgeralds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Fitzgerald, while Washington, Missouri, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Fitzgerald
The given name Fitzgerald originates from the medieval Anglo-Norman French language, which was spoken by the Norman aristocracy after the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The name is a compound of two elements: "fils" meaning "son" and "gerald" meaning "ruler with a spear."
The name Fitzgerald is closely associated with the Hiberno-Norman dynasty of the same name, one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman families in medieval Ireland. The first recorded use of the name dates back to the late 12th century, when Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Maynooth and Naas, established the dynasty.
In the 13th century, Maurice FitzGerald's grandson, Gerald FitzMaurice, played a significant role in the Norman conquest of Ireland. He was known as "Gerald the Great" and was the progenitor of several notable families, including the Earls of Kildare and the Earls of Desmond.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Fitzgerald was the English Renaissance writer and courtier, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald (c. 1513 - 1537). He was a close friend of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and is known for his role in introducing the sonnet form to English literature.
Another notable Fitzgerald was George Fitzgerald (1612 - 1665), an Irish military leader and statesman who fought for the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. He was later appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland and played a crucial role in the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.
During the 18th century, the name Fitzgerald gained literary prominence with the Irish writer and poet Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774), whose full name was Oliver Goldsmith Esquire. Although Goldsmith is not directly associated with the name Fitzgerald, his middle name was a nod to the influential Fitzgerald family.
In the 19th century, one of the most celebrated figures with the name Fitzgerald was Edward Fitzgerald (1809 - 1883), an English writer and poet best known for his translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which brought the Persian poet's work to the attention of the English-speaking world.
People
Fitzgerald + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fitzgerald as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fitzgerald: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fitzgerald?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,762 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fitzgerald going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 194,526 US residents.
Is Fitzgerald a common name?
We classify Fitzgerald as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,885 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fitzgerald most popular?
The single biggest year for Fitzgerald was 1964, when 125 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fitzgerald is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fitzgerald in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,558 people with the name Fitzgerald, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,086 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Fitzgerald in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Fitzgerald?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fitzgerald leans strongly male. 1,533 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 25 female bearers (1.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Fitzgerald?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fitzgerald is Black at 48.8%. The next largest groups are White (33.4%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Fitzgerald most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Fitzgerald in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.8% (761 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Fitzgerald in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fitzgerald a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fitzgerald in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Fitzgerald still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fitzgerald in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Fitzgerald can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Fitzgerald?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.