Gae
A Scottish diminutive of the name Gavin meaning "white hawk".
Name Census estimates that about 317 living Americans carry the first name Gae. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gae today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gae births was 1946 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gae. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Gae is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gaes were born before 1963.
People living today
317
~ 1 in 1,081,244 Americans
Peak year
1946
28 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1968 SSA rank
#5,827
Tracked since 1913
Census
Gae in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 471 people with the first name Gae, which placed it at #21,522 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
#21,522
National first-name rank
People counted
471
471 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gae
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gae is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.0%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Gae 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 Gae at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.8% · 371
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.0% · 47
- Black or African American4.5% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 15
- Two or more races3.2% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Gae: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gae from the 1910s through to the 1960s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 191 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Gae remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gae 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 Gae during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gaes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Gae, while Washington, Utah, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gae
The name Gae has its origins in the Gaelic language, spoken by the Celtic people of Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. It dates back to ancient times, with the earliest recorded instances appearing in Scottish records from the Middle Ages.
Gae is a shortened form of the Scottish name Gaedheal, which means "an inhabitant of Gaelic Scotland." It is believed to be derived from the Old Irish word "Goidel," meaning "a Gaelic person." This name was used to distinguish the Gaelic-speaking Scots from their neighbors, the Picts and Britons.
In ancient Celtic mythology, Gae was also the name of a spear or javelin associated with the legendary hero Cú Chulainn. This magical spear was said to have the power to inflict wounds that could never be healed, and it played a significant role in several Irish mythological tales.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Gae was Gae Bulg, a 12th-century Scottish warrior and nobleman. He was known for his bravery and skill in battle and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the time.
Another notable figure was Gae MacGregor, a 16th-century Scottish clan chief who was renowned for his leadership and military prowess during the Scottish clan wars. He was born around 1550 and played a significant role in the conflicts between the MacGregor clan and their rivals, the Campbells.
In the 17th century, Gae Inglis was a Scottish philosopher and writer who lived from 1618 to 1701. He was known for his work on metaphysics and his contributions to the Scottish Enlightenment.
Gae Ewing, born in 1835, was a Scottish-American artist and educator who gained recognition for his landscape paintings depicting the American West. He was instrumental in establishing art education programs in several universities across the United States.
More recently, Gae Polisner was an American author and poet, born in 1960. She is best known for her young adult novels and her work exploring themes of family, identity, and resilience.
While the name Gae may have fallen out of widespread use in recent times, it remains a part of the rich cultural heritage of the Celtic people and has left an indelible mark on history through the lives of these notable individuals.
People
Gae + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gae as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gae: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gae?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 317 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gae 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 1,081,244 US residents.
Is Gae a common name?
We classify Gae as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 652 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gae most popular?
The single biggest year for Gae was 1946, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gae is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gae in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 471 people with the name Gae, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,522 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 Gae 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 Gae?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gae leans strongly female. 432 people counted with this name were female (93.3%), compared with 31 male bearers (6.7%). 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 Gae?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gae is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.0%) and Black (4.5%). 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 Gae most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gae in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.8% (371 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 Gae in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gae a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gae in the SSA data are female. 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 Gae still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gae 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 Gae 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 are named Gae?
Want to know how many people share the name Gae? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.