Gonzalo
A masculine Iberian name derived from the Visigothic-Germanic name Gundisalvus, meaning "battle ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 9,343 living Americans carry the first name Gonzalo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gonzalo today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gonzalo births was 2000 (254 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gonzalo. 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 Gonzalo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
9.3K
~ 1 in 36,686 Americans
Peak year
2000
254 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,483
Tracked since 1902
Census
Gonzalo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,277 people with the first name Gonzalo, which placed it at #1,499 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
#1,499
National first-name rank
People counted
22K
22,277 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gonzalo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gonzalo is Hispanic at 97.1%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Gonzalo 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 Gonzalo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.1% · 21,636
- White1.5% · 332
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 231
- Black or African American0.2% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 25
- Two or more races0.1% · 16
Popularity
Gonzalo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gonzalo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,091 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gonzalo 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 Gonzalo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gonzalos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Gonzalo, while Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 573 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gonzalo
The name Gonzalo is of Spanish origin, derived from the Visigothic name Gundisalvus, which is composed of the Germanic elements "gund" meaning "battle" and "salvo" meaning "safe". It emerged during the period of Visigothic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, which lasted from the 5th to the 8th century AD.
The earliest recorded use of the name Gonzalo can be traced back to the 9th century, when it appeared in medieval Spanish documents and chronicles. It gained widespread popularity during the Reconquista, the period of Christian conquest over Moorish territories in the Iberian Peninsula, which lasted from the 8th to the 15th century.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Gonzalo was Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453-1515), a Spanish military leader known as "El Gran Capitán" (The Great Captain). He played a crucial role in the Reconquista and is celebrated for his military victories against the French in Italy.
Another famous bearer of the name was Gonzalo Pizarro (c. 1502-1548), a Spanish conquistador and the younger half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru. Gonzalo led an expedition into the Amazon basin and was later executed for leading a rebellion against the Spanish crown.
In the realm of literature, Gonzalo de Berceo (c. 1196-1264) was a Spanish poet and one of the most important figures in the development of Castilian vernacular literature. His works, such as the "Milagros de Nuestra Señora" (Miracles of Our Lady), are considered masterpieces of medieval Spanish poetry.
Gonzalo Guerrero (c. 1470-1536) was a Spanish sailor and one of the first Europeans to settle in Mexico. He was shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula and became integrated into Mayan society, even fighting against Spanish conquistadors alongside the Maya.
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés (1478-1557) was a Spanish historian and writer who served as a colonial administrator in the West Indies. His work "Historia General y Natural de las Indias" (General and Natural History of the Indies) is a valuable source of information about the early Spanish colonization of the Americas.
People
Gonzalo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gonzalo 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
Gonzalo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gonzalo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,343 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gonzalo 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 36,686 US residents.
Is Gonzalo a common name?
We classify Gonzalo as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,879 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gonzalo most popular?
The single biggest year for Gonzalo was 2000, when 254 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gonzalo is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gonzalo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,277 people with the name Gonzalo, or 7.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,499 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 Gonzalo 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 Gonzalo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gonzalo appears almost entirely male. Of the 22,281 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Gonzalo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gonzalo is Hispanic at 97.1%. The next largest groups are White (1.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Gonzalo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Gonzalo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.1% (21,636 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 Gonzalo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gonzalo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gonzalo 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 Gonzalo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gonzalo 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 Gonzalo 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 Americans are named Gonzalo?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.