Garrett
A masculine name of medieval English origin meaning "hardy spearman".
Name Census estimates that about 128,737 living Americans carry the first name Garrett. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Garrett today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Garrett births was 2000 (5,850 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Garrett. 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 Garrett with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Garrett is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 452 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
129K
~ 1 in 2,662 Americans
Peak year
2000
5,850 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#562
Tracked since 1880
Census
Garrett in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 116,551 people with the first name Garrett, which placed it at #485 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
#485
National first-name rank
People counted
117K
116,551 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
38.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Garrett
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garrett is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.2%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Garrett 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 Garrett at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.8% · 101,146
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 4,844
- Two or more races4.0% · 4,708
- Black or African American2.8% · 3,316
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 1,481
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,056
Gender
Gender distribution for Garrett
Out of the 135,674 babies given the name Garrett since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Garrett as a male name
- Ranked #562 in 2024
- 527 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (5,840 births)
Garrett as a female name
- Ranked #15,239 in 2014
- 6 female births in 2014
- Peak: 1989 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garrett appears almost entirely male. Of the 116,551 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Garrett: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Garrett from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 45,465 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Garrett 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 Garrett during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Garretts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Garrett, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,572 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Garrett
The name Garrett has its origins in the ancient Germanic language, where it was derived from the words "ger" meaning "spear" and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy." The name was initially used to describe a brave and valiant spearman or warrior. It gained popularity during the Middle Ages when the use of personal names became more widespread across Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Garrett can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals documenting the history of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. In the chronicle, a person named Garret is mentioned as a witness to a land grant in the year 962 AD.
The name Garrett has also been associated with various historical figures throughout the centuries. One notable example is Garrett FitzGerald, the Lord of Offaly in Ireland, who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He played a significant role in the Norman invasion of Ireland and was a prominent figure in the political and military affairs of the time.
Another prominent individual with the name Garrett was Garrett Augustus Morgan Sr. (1877-1963), an African American inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for his inventions, including the improved traffic signal and the safety hood, a precursor to the modern gas mask. Morgan's contributions to public safety and innovation have made him a celebrated figure in American history.
In the realm of literature, Garrett Mattingly (1900-1962) was an American historian and author renowned for his works on the Renaissance period. His book "The Armada" (1959), a comprehensive account of the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England in 1588, is considered a classic in its field.
Garrett Augustus Hobart (1844-1899) was the 24th Vice President of the United States, serving under President William McKinley from 1897 until his death in 1899. He played a crucial role in advocating for the annexation of Hawaii and was instrumental in shaping the foreign policy of the McKinley administration.
Garrett Hongo (born 1951) is a renowned American poet, memoirist, and academic of Japanese descent. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including the Lamont Poetry Prize and the Guggenheim Fellowship. His memoir "Vagrant Grace" (2020) explores his mixed-race identity and experiences growing up in Hawaii and Los Angeles.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Garrett
People
Garrett + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Garrett 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
Garrett: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Garrett?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 128,737 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Garrett 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 2,662 US residents.
Is Garrett a common name?
We classify Garrett as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 135,674 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Garrett most popular?
The single biggest year for Garrett was 2000, when 5,850 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Garrett is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Garrett in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 116,551 people with the name Garrett, or 38.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #485 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 Garrett 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 Garrett?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Garrett appears almost entirely male. Of the 116,551 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Garrett?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Garrett is White at 86.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.2%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Garrett most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Garrett in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.8% (101,146 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 Garrett in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Garrett a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Garrett 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 Garrett still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Garrett 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 Garrett 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 Garrett?
Want to know how many people have the name Garrett? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.