Gareth
A masculine name of Welsh origin meaning "rough" or "harsh".
Name Census estimates that about 3,728 living Americans carry the first name Gareth. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gareth today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gareth births was 2016 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gareth. 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 Gareth with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.7K
~ 1 in 91,941 Americans
Peak year
2016
104 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,637
Tracked since 1916
Census
Gareth in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,778 people with the first name Gareth, which placed it at #4,056 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
#4,056
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,778 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gareth
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gareth is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Gareth 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 Gareth at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.2% · 3,689
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 336
- Black or African American6.1% · 291
- Two or more races5.6% · 267
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 150
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 45
Gender
Gender distribution for Gareth
Out of the 4,347 babies given the name Gareth since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Gareth as a male name
- Ranked #2,637 in 2024
- 50 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (104 births)
Gareth as a female name
- Ranked #6,270 in 1956
- 5 female births in 1956
- Peak: 1956 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gareth leans strongly male. 4,711 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 68 female bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Gareth: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gareth from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 720 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Gareth remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gareth 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 Gareth during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gareths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Gareth, while Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gareth
The name Gareth originated from the Welsh language and culture. It derives from the Germanic elements "gar" meaning "spear" and "rith" meaning "assault" or "prompt." The earliest known spelling was "Gararth" in the 9th century.
In Welsh mythology, Gareth was one of the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He appeared as a character in the 14th century French chivalric romance Lancelot-Grail and the 15th century English Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. Sir Gareth was known as the Beaumains or "Fair Hand" and the youngest son of King Lot and Morgause.
An early recorded bearer of the name was Gareth Ddu, a 14th century Welsh poet and son of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Another was Gareth ap Bleddyn, a 12th century Welsh landowner and nobleman in Powys. Jeuan Gethin, born around 1392, was a Welsh language poet and court poet who used the bardic name Gareth Gethin.
In the 16th century, Gareth Harrison was an English explorer and privateer who sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Roanoke Island in 1585. Gareth Jones (1905-1935) was a Welsh journalist who exposed the Soviet famine genocide in Ukraine and was murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Gareth Edwards (1835-1915) was a Welsh minister, academic and writer who founded the Calvinistic Methodists and published writings in the Welsh language. Sir Gareth Rhys (1916-1992) was a Welsh international rugby player and Royal Navy officer during World War II.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gareth
People
Gareth + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gareth 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
Gareth: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gareth?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,728 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gareth 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 91,941 US residents.
Is Gareth a common name?
We classify Gareth as "Rare". It ranks above 95.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,347 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gareth most popular?
The single biggest year for Gareth was 2016, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gareth is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gareth in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,778 people with the name Gareth, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,056 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 Gareth 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 Gareth?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gareth leans strongly male. 4,711 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 68 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Gareth?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gareth is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Black (6.1%). 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 Gareth most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gareth in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.2% (3,689 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 Gareth in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gareth a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Gareth 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 Gareth still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gareth 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 Gareth 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 called Gareth?
You can see how many Americans are named Gareth on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.