Gidget
A diminutive name that may derive from the name Gertrude.
Name Census estimates that about 1,379 living Americans carry the first name Gidget. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gidget today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gidget births was 1966 (187 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gidget. 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.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 248,553 Americans
Peak year
1966
187 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2016 SSA rank
#14,967
Tracked since 1946
Census
Gidget in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,382 people with the first name Gidget, which placed it at #9,859 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
#9,859
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,382 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gidget
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gidget is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Hispanic (8.0%). 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 Gidget 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 Gidget at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.0% · 995
- Black or African American11.4% · 158
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 111
- Two or more races4.5% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 17
Popularity
Gidget: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gidget from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 705 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
Gidget 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 Gidget during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gidgets live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. California, Illinois, Texas recorded the most babies named Gidget, while Iowa, Missouri, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gidget
The name Gidget is a relatively modern invention, originating in the 20th century. It is a diminutive form of the name Gertrude, which is derived from the Germanic elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "thrud" meaning "strength." The name Gertrude was popular among medieval nobility and royalty, but the shortened form Gidget did not emerge until much later.
Gidget first appeared as the nickname of the fictional character Frances Elizabeth Lawrence in the 1957 novel "Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas" by Frederick Kohner. The novel was inspired by Kohner's own daughter Kathy, who was an avid surfer in Malibu, California. The name Gidget became synonymous with the surf culture of Southern California in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Gidget was in the 1959 film adaptation of Kohner's novel, starring Sandra Dee as the title character. The film's popularity helped to popularize the name Gidget as a given name, particularly among young girls and teenagers who identified with the character's carefree, beachy lifestyle.
While Gidget was initially a fictional character, the name has since been adopted by real people. One of the earliest examples is Gidget Geine, an American actress and model born in 1948. Another notable bearer of the name is Gidget Portner, an American surfer and environmental activist born in 1946.
Throughout the 20th century, several other notable individuals have borne the name Gidget. These include Gidget Yeasting, an American softball player who competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and Gidget Shelton, a former professional golfer from the United States.
While the name Gidget may have started as a fictional moniker, it has since taken on a life of its own, becoming a popular given name in its own right. Its association with the surf culture of Southern California and its playful, youthful connotations have contributed to its enduring appeal as a unique and memorable name choice.
People
Gidget + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gidget 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
Gidget: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gidget?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,379 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gidget 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 248,553 US residents.
Is Gidget a common name?
We classify Gidget as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,586 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gidget most popular?
The single biggest year for Gidget was 1966, when 187 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gidget is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gidget in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,382 people with the name Gidget, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,859 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 Gidget 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 Gidget?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gidget appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,379 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Gidget?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gidget is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Hispanic (8.0%). 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 Gidget most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gidget in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (995 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 Gidget in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gidget a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gidget 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 Gidget still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gidget 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 Gidget 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 common is the name Gidget?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.