Garey
A masculine English name potentially derived from the Old German "Gari," meaning spear.
Name Census estimates that about 1,054 living Americans carry the first name Garey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Garey today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Garey births was 1952 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Garey. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 325,194 Americans
Peak year
1952
61 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2013 SSA rank
#11,187
Tracked since 1931
Census
Garey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,040 people with the first name Garey, which placed it at #12,092 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
#12,092
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,040 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Garey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garey is White at 66.3%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Garey 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 Garey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.3% · 690
- Black or African American26.1% · 271
- Two or more races3.6% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Garey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Garey from the 1930s through to the 2010s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 397 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Garey 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 Garey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gareys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, Ohio, Michigan recorded the most babies named Garey, while North Carolina, Mississippi, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Garey
The name Garey traces its origins to the Old English and Anglo-Saxon languages, where it was derived from the word "gara," meaning "spear." It first emerged in the early medieval period, around the 5th to 7th centuries AD, when Anglo-Saxon communities were established in what is now England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Garey appears in the Domesday Book, a vast survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Several individuals with variations of the name, such as Gari and Garic, are listed as landholders and tenants throughout the document.
In the 12th century, the name Garey gained prominence through the life of Garey of St. Albans, a monk and historian who lived from around 1095 to 1170. His chronicle, known as the "Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani," provides a valuable historical account of the period and is considered one of the most important sources for the study of medieval England.
During the Middle Ages, the name Garey was particularly popular among the nobility and landed gentry of England. One notable bearer of the name was Garey de Montfort, a 13th-century English nobleman who played a significant role in the Barons' War against King Henry III. He was born around 1215 and died in 1265.
In the Renaissance period, the name Garey gained literary significance through the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. In his famous "Canterbury Tales," Chaucer includes a character named Garey the Reeve, a steward or overseer of lands, who represents the complex social dynamics of the time.
Another prominent figure in history with the name Garey was Garey Vere, an English soldier and courtier who lived from 1565 to 1631. He served under Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted for his military service during the Anglo-Spanish War.
Throughout the centuries, the name Garey has remained in use, though with varying popularity. Other notable individuals with this name include Garey Davies, a Welsh poet and writer of the 18th century, and Garey Morse, an American businessman and philanthropist of the 19th century.
People
Garey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Garey 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
Garey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Garey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,054 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Garey 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 325,194 US residents.
Is Garey a common name?
We classify Garey as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,457 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Garey most popular?
The single biggest year for Garey was 1952, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Garey is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Garey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,040 people with the name Garey, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,092 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 Garey 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 Garey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garey leans strongly male. 1,026 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 16 female bearers (1.5%). 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 Garey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garey is White at 66.3%. The next largest groups are Black (26.1%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Garey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Garey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.3% (690 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 Garey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Garey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Garey 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 Garey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Garey 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 Garey 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 Americans are named Garey?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.