Gerhardt
A German name derived from the Old German words "ger" meaning spear and "hart" meaning brave.
Name Census estimates that about 153 living Americans carry the first name Gerhardt. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gerhardt today is around 77 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gerhardt births was 1916 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gerhardt. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Gerhardt is about 77 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gerhardts were born before 1959.
People living today
153
~ 1 in 2,240,224 Americans
Peak year
1916
45 babies that year
Average age
77
years old
1999 SSA rank
#10,481
Tracked since 1903
Census
Gerhardt in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 404 people with the first name Gerhardt, which placed it at #24,004 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
#24,004
National first-name rank
People counted
404
404 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gerhardt
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gerhardt is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Black (3.2%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Gerhardt 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 Gerhardt at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.8% · 367
- Black or African American3.2% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 11
- Two or more races2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Popularity
Gerhardt: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gerhardt from the 1900s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 280 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gerhardt 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 Gerhardt during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gerhardts live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois recorded the most babies named Gerhardt, while New York, Michigan, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gerhardt
The given name Gerhardt is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old German words "ger" meaning "spear" and "hard" meaning "hardy" or "brave". It emerged as a common name in the Medieval period, particularly in regions of present-day Germany and the Netherlands.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Gerhardt was Gerhardt von Riga, a 13th-century priest and chronicler who documented the Northern Crusades in Livonia (present-day Latvia and Estonia). His work, the Livonian Chronicle, provides valuable insights into the region's history during that era.
In the 16th century, Gerhardt Mercator, a Flemish cartographer and geographer, gained fame for his innovative world map projection, now known as the Mercator projection. He was born in 1512 and died in 1594, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of cartography.
The 17th century saw the rise of Gerhardt Tersteegen, a German mystic and poet born in 1697. His religious works, such as the collection of hymns "Geistliches Blumengärtlein", became widely popular and influenced Protestant spirituality.
Another notable figure was Gerhardt von Kügelgen, a German painter and writer born in 1772. He is renowned for his portraits of notable figures from the Romantic era, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.
In the 19th century, Gerhardt Hauptmann, a German dramatist and novelist, achieved literary acclaim. Born in 1862, he is best known for his naturalistic plays, such as "The Weavers" and "The Sunken Bell". Hauptmann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.
While these are just a few examples, the name Gerhardt has been present throughout various periods of history, bearing witness to the cultural and linguistic roots of its Germanic heritage.
People
Gerhardt + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gerhardt 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
Gerhardt: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gerhardt?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 153 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gerhardt 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 2,240,224 US residents.
Is Gerhardt a common name?
We classify Gerhardt as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 858 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gerhardt most popular?
The single biggest year for Gerhardt was 1916, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gerhardt is about 77 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gerhardt in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 404 people with the name Gerhardt, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,004 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 Gerhardt 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 Gerhardt?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gerhardt leans strongly male. 404 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 6 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 Gerhardt?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gerhardt is White at 90.8%. The next largest groups are Black (3.2%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Gerhardt most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gerhardt in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.8% (367 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 Gerhardt in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gerhardt a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gerhardt 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 Gerhardt still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gerhardt 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 Gerhardt 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 named Gerhardt?
Want to know how many people share the name Gerhardt? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.