Godfrey
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 1,577 living Americans carry the first name Godfrey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Godfrey today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Godfrey births was 1918 (71 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Godfrey. 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 Godfrey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 217,346 Americans
Peak year
1918
71 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,205
Tracked since 1880
Census
Godfrey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,803 people with the first name Godfrey, which placed it at #5,906 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
#5,906
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,803 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Godfrey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Godfrey is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.4%). 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 Godfrey 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 Godfrey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.4% · 1,833
- White16.9% · 475
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.4% · 292
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 115
- Two or more races2.6% · 74
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 14
Popularity
Godfrey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Godfrey from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 468 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
Godfrey 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 Godfrey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Godfreys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. New York, Louisiana, California recorded the most babies named Godfrey, while Mississippi, Massachusetts, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Godfrey
The name Godfrey originated in the Germanic languages and cultures. It is an Old German name derived from the words "god" and "fri," meaning "peace of God." The earliest recorded spelling was "Godefrith" in the 8th century.
Godfrey was a popular name among the Frankish nobility during the Middle Ages. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060-1100), a French nobleman who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade. He became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the successful conquest of the Holy Land.
Another notable Godfrey from medieval times was Godfrey the Hunchback (c. 1060-1107), Duke of Lower Lorraine. He played a significant role in the Investiture Controversy between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope.
In the 13th century, Godfrey of Viterbo (c. 1120-1191) was an Italian chronicler and historian who wrote about the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy.
During the Renaissance, Godfrey (or Gottfried) of Strasbourg (c. 1165-c. 1215) was a German poet who wrote the famous courtly romance Tristan and Isolde.
In the 17th century, Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) was a prominent German-born painter who worked in England and became the leading court painter under several monarchs.
Moving into more recent history, Godfrey Hounsfield (1919-2004) was a British electrical engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work in developing the computed tomography (CT) scanner.
People
Godfrey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Godfrey 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
Godfrey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Godfrey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,577 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Godfrey 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 217,346 US residents.
Is Godfrey a common name?
We classify Godfrey as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,236 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Godfrey most popular?
The single biggest year for Godfrey was 1918, when 71 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Godfrey is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Godfrey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,803 people with the name Godfrey, or 0.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,906 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 Godfrey 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 Godfrey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Godfrey appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,800 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Godfrey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Godfrey is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.4%). 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 Godfrey most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Godfrey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.4% (1,833 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 Godfrey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Godfrey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Godfrey 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 Godfrey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Godfrey 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 Godfrey 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 Godfrey?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.