Gerrie
A Dutch diminutive form of the name Gerardus or Gertrude.
Name Census estimates that about 768 living Americans carry the first name Gerrie. It is a predominantly female name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Gerrie today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gerrie births was 1948 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gerrie. 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 Gerrie is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gerries were born before 1968.
People living today
768
~ 1 in 446,295 Americans
Peak year
1948
53 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1969 SSA rank
#4,117
Tracked since 1918
Census
Gerrie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,014 people with the first name Gerrie, which placed it at #12,310 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
#12,310
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,014 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gerrie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gerrie is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) 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 Gerrie 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 Gerrie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.9% · 820
- Black or African American8.4% · 85
- Two or more races3.6% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Gerrie
Out of the 1,378 babies given the name Gerrie since 1880, 99.2% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Gerrie as a male name
- Ranked #4,117 in 1969
- 6 male births in 1969
- Peak: 1969 (6 births)
Gerrie as a female name
- Ranked #7,621 in 1984
- 8 female births in 1984
- Peak: 1947 (50 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gerrie leans strongly female. 944 people counted with this name were female (93.5%), compared with 66 male bearers (6.5%).
Popularity
Gerrie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gerrie from the 1910s through to the 1980s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 385 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gerrie 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 Gerrie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gerries live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Illinois, Michigan recorded the most babies named Gerrie, while Ohio, Michigan, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gerrie
The name Gerrie is a diminutive form of the Dutch name Gerrit, which is derived from the Germanic name Gerhard. The name Gerhard is composed of the elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy". It emerged during the medieval period, around the 8th or 9th century, in various spellings such as Gerardus, Gerardis, and Gerraert.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Gerrie can be found in Dutch records from the 16th and 17th centuries. During this time, the Netherlands experienced a cultural and economic renaissance, known as the Dutch Golden Age, which may have contributed to the popularity of the name.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Gerrie was Gerrie Coetzee, a South African boxer who was born in 1955 and held the heavyweight boxing championship title from 1983 to 1984. Another notable figure was Gerrie Knetemann, a Dutch professional cyclist born in 1951, who won multiple stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.
In the world of art, Gerrie Ferris was a prominent Australian artist born in 1925, known for her vibrant paintings depicting Australian landscapes and Indigenous subjects. Gerrie Bour, born in 1925, was a Dutch author and children's book writer, renowned for her contributions to children's literature.
The name Gerrie also has historical significance in the field of science. Gerrie Ferris-Taylor, born in 1936, was a pioneering British computer scientist and one of the first women to work in the field of computer programming in the United Kingdom.
Throughout history, the name Gerrie has been associated with individuals from various backgrounds and professions, reflecting its enduring popularity and versatility across different cultures and time periods.
People
Gerrie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gerrie 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
Gerrie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gerrie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 768 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gerrie 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 446,295 US residents.
Is Gerrie a common name?
We classify Gerrie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,378 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gerrie most popular?
The single biggest year for Gerrie was 1948, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gerrie is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gerrie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,014 people with the name Gerrie, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,310 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 Gerrie 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 Gerrie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gerrie leans strongly female. 944 people counted with this name were female (93.5%), compared with 66 male bearers (6.5%). 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 Gerrie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gerrie is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) 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 Gerrie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gerrie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.9% (820 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 Gerrie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gerrie a female name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Gerrie in the SSA data are female. 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 Gerrie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gerrie 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 Gerrie 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 share the name Gerrie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.