Gennaro
Masculine Italian name meaning "born in January" or "protected by the month of January".
Name Census estimates that about 1,527 living Americans carry the first name Gennaro. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gennaro today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gennaro births was 1926 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gennaro. 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 Gennaro with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 224,463 Americans
Peak year
1926
42 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,600
Tracked since 1904
Census
Gennaro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,009 people with the first name Gennaro, which placed it at #7,555 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
#7,555
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,009 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gennaro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gennaro is White at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Gennaro 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 Gennaro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.0% · 1,849
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 103
- Black or African American1.3% · 26
- Two or more races1.1% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Gennaro: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gennaro from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 339 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Gennaro remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gennaro 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 Gennaro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gennaros live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut recorded the most babies named Gennaro, while Florida, California, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 159 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gennaro
The name Gennaro originates from the Italian language and has its roots in the Late Latin name Ianuarius. This name is derived from the Latin word "ianua," meaning "door" or "gate." The name likely has a connection to the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings, transitions, and entrances.
In ancient Roman culture, the month of January was named after Janus and was considered the first month of the year, serving as a symbolic entrance or gateway to the new year. This association with beginnings and transitions may have influenced the development of the name Gennaro.
The earliest recorded use of the name Gennaro can be traced back to the early medieval period in Italy. One of the earliest notable figures with this name was Gennaro Maria Sarnelli (1598-1618), an Italian Catholic prelate who was canonized as a saint by Pope Pius IX in 1861.
Another prominent historical figure named Gennaro was Gennaro Annese (1604-1678), an Italian anatomist and physician who made significant contributions to the study of the human brain. He is known for his detailed descriptions and illustrations of the brain's ventricles and other structures.
During the Renaissance period, the name Gennaro gained popularity among Italian artists and intellectuals. One notable bearer of this name was Gennaro Greco (1663-1714), an Italian painter and architect who worked in Naples and contributed to the development of the Baroque style in southern Italy.
In the realm of opera, Gennaro is the name of a character in Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller." The opera, based on a play by Friedrich Schiller, premiered in 1849 and features Gennaro as a young lover caught in a tragic love story.
Another historical figure named Gennaro was Gennaro Contaldo (1854-1909), an Italian chef and restaurateur who played a significant role in introducing authentic Neapolitan cuisine to London in the late 19th century. His restaurant, Cafe Napolitana, became a popular destination for Italian cuisine in the city.
People
Gennaro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gennaro 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
Gennaro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gennaro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,527 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gennaro 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 224,463 US residents.
Is Gennaro a common name?
We classify Gennaro as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,521 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gennaro most popular?
The single biggest year for Gennaro was 1926, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gennaro is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gennaro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,009 people with the name Gennaro, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,555 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 Gennaro 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 Gennaro?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gennaro appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,007 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 Gennaro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gennaro is White at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Gennaro most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gennaro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.0% (1,849 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 Gennaro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gennaro a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gennaro 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 Gennaro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gennaro 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 Gennaro 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 have the name Gennaro?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.