Georg
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker".
Name Census estimates that about 347 living Americans carry the first name Georg. It is a predominantly male name (98.0% of registrations). The average person named Georg today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Georg births was 1963 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Georg. 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 Georg with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
347
~ 1 in 987,765 Americans
Peak year
1963
15 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2022 SSA rank
#5,861
Tracked since 1915
Census
Georg in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,295 people with the first name Georg, which placed it at #10,350 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
#10,350
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,295 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Georg
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Georg is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.7%) and Hispanic (6.6%). 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 Georg 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 Georg at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.7% · 1,071
- Black or African American6.7% · 87
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 85
- Two or more races2.9% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Georg
Georg leans heavily male at 98.0% of total registrations, but 10 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Georg as a male name
- Ranked #12,986 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1963 (15 births)
Georg as a female name
- Ranked #5,861 in 1952
- 5 female births in 1952
- Peak: 1936 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Georg leans strongly male. 1,275 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 17 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Georg: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Georg from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 107 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Georg 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 Georg during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Georg
The name Georg has its origins in the ancient Greek language, derived from the word "georgos," which means "farmer" or "earth-worker." This name gained popularity in the Eastern Roman Empire, particularly in regions like Greece and Anatolia, during the Byzantine period.
The name Georg has a strong connection to Christianity, as it was borne by several early Christian martyrs and saints. One of the most notable figures is Saint George, a Roman soldier who was martyred for his Christian faith in the 4th century AD. His legend and cult following spread across Europe and the Middle East, contributing to the widespread use of the name.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Georg can be traced back to the 4th and 5th centuries AD, when it appeared in Greek and Latin texts. Over time, the name evolved into various spellings and forms across different languages, such as Georgios in Greek, Georgius in Latin, and Georg in German.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Georg. One of the earliest and most influential was Georg Agricola, a German scholar and scientist who lived from 1494 to 1555. He made significant contributions to the fields of mineralogy and metallurgy, and is considered the father of modern mineralogy.
Another prominent figure was Georg Friedrich Händel, better known as George Frideric Handel, a German-British Baroque composer who lived from 1685 to 1759. He is renowned for his operas, oratorios, and instrumental works, including the famous "Messiah" oratorio.
In the realm of philosophy, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher who lived from 1770 to 1831, left an indelible mark with his influential works on dialectics and idealism. His philosophical system, known as Hegelianism, had a profound impact on subsequent philosophical thought.
The name Georg also has a strong association with the world of science. Georg Ohm, a German physicist who lived from 1789 to 1854, is best known for his groundbreaking work on electrical resistance and the formulation of Ohm's law, which laid the foundation for the study of electrical circuits.
Lastly, Georg Cantor, a German mathematician who lived from 1845 to 1918, made significant contributions to the field of set theory and introduced the concept of infinite sets, revolutionizing the understanding of infinity in mathematics.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Georg
People
Georg + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Georg 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
Georg: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Georg?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 347 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Georg 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 987,765 US residents.
Is Georg a common name?
We classify Georg as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 496 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Georg most popular?
The single biggest year for Georg was 1963, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Georg is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Georg in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,295 people with the name Georg, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,350 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 Georg 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 Georg?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Georg leans strongly male. 1,275 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 17 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Georg?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Georg is White at 82.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.7%) and Hispanic (6.6%). 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 Georg most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Georg in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.7% (1,071 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 Georg in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Georg a male name?
Yes, 98.0% of people registered as Georg 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 Georg still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Georg 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 Georg 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 Georg as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.