Girard
A masculine name of French origin meaning "strong with a spear".
Name Census estimates that about 911 living Americans carry the first name Girard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Girard today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Girard births was 1926 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Girard. 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
911
~ 1 in 376,240 Americans
Peak year
1926
37 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2003 SSA rank
#10,009
Tracked since 1900
Census
Girard in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 968 people with the first name Girard, which placed it at #12,739 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
#12,739
National first-name rank
People counted
968
968 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Girard
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Girard is White at 66.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (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 Girard 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 Girard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.3% · 642
- Black or African American23.8% · 230
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 31
- Two or more races1.9% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 12
Popularity
Girard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Girard from the 1900s through to the 2000s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 307 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Girard 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 Girard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Girards live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Girard, while Rhode Island, Maine, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Girard
The name Girard originates from the Germanic languages and can be traced back to the 8th century. It is derived from the Old German words "ger" meaning spear and "hard" meaning brave or hardy, thus describing a valiant warrior or spearman. The name was initially popular in areas of modern-day France, Germany, and the Low Countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Girard can be found in the Carolingian genealogies, where a Count Girard is mentioned as a loyal supporter of Charlemagne in the late 8th century. The name also appears in various medieval charters and records from monastic scribes across Europe.
In the 11th century, a French nobleman named Girard de Roussillon was celebrated in an epic chanson de geste (song of heroic deeds) for his service to the Carolingian emperor Charles the Bald. This literary work helped popularize the name in medieval France.
The name Girard gained further prominence in the 12th century with the rise of the influential Cistercian monk St. Girard of Brogne (1060-1137), who founded several monasteries in modern-day Belgium and was later canonized by the Catholic Church.
Among other notable historical figures bearing the name Girard, we find Girard de Vienne (c. 1180-1227), a French troubadour and crusader who participated in the Albigensian Crusade; Girard Desargues (1591-1661), a French mathematician and engineer who made significant contributions to the development of projective geometry; and Girard Tengaud (1615-1689), a French priest and diplomat who served as the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under King Louis XIV.
Another famous bearer of the name was Girard de Mielet (c. 1328-1406), a French knight and military commander who fought alongside Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years' War. In the 16th century, we find Girard Mercator (1512-1594), the Flemish cartographer and geographer celebrated for his pioneering world map and the Mercator projection technique.
People
Girard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Girard 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
Girard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Girard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 911 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Girard 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 376,240 US residents.
Is Girard a common name?
We classify Girard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,717 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Girard most popular?
The single biggest year for Girard was 1926, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Girard is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Girard in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 968 people with the name Girard, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,739 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 Girard 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 Girard?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Girard appears almost entirely male. Of the 962 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Girard?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Girard is White at 66.3%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (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 Girard most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Girard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.3% (642 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 Girard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Girard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Girard 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 Girard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Girard 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 Girard 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 called Girard?
You can see how many people have the name Girard on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.