Gunter
A Germanic masculine name meaning "battle warrior" or "fighter's warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 373 living Americans carry the first name Gunter. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gunter today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gunter births was 2015 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gunter. 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
373
~ 1 in 918,912 Americans
Peak year
2015
17 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,903
Tracked since 1929
Census
Gunter in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,023 people with the first name Gunter, which placed it at #12,227 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
#12,227
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,023 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gunter
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gunter is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Gunter 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 Gunter at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.6% · 927
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 46
- Two or more races2.9% · 30
- Black or African American1.2% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 3
Popularity
Gunter: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gunter from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 98 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Gunter remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gunter 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 Gunter during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gunters live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gunter
Gunter is a masculine given name of German origin, derived from the Old German words "gund" meaning "battle" and "her" meaning "army" or "warrior." It first emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 5th to 9th centuries AD, in various regions of modern-day Germany and surrounding areas.
The name Gunter is believed to have its roots in the name of the Germanic tribe known as the Gunthers or Gundherians, who were mentioned in ancient texts such as the Nibelungenlied, a medieval German epic poem written around the 13th century. The name was also found in other literary works of the time, such as the Icelandic sagas.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Gunter was Gunther, the Burgundian king who ruled in the 5th century AD. He is a central character in the Nibelungenlied, where he is portrayed as a powerful and ambitious ruler.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Gunter. One of the most famous was Gunther of Pairis (c. 965 - c. 1060), a German ecclesiastic who served as the Archbishop of Salzburg from 1024 until his death. He is remembered for his efforts to reform the Church and his patronage of the arts and education.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Gunther von Schwarzburg (c. 1170 - 1223), a German nobleman and crusader who participated in the Fifth Crusade and was later appointed as the first Prince-Bishop of Bamberg.
In the realm of science, Gunter Grass (1927 - 2015) was a renowned German novelist, playwright, and poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 for his influential works, including "The Tin Drum" and "Cat and Mouse."
Gunter Sachs (1932 - 2011) was a German businessman, photographer, and former husband of the French actress Brigitte Bardot, known for his lavish lifestyle and fascination with art and culture.
Gunter Wallraff (born 1942) is a German journalist and author who gained prominence for his undercover investigations and exposés of social injustice, particularly in his book "Ganz unten" (Lowest of the Low).
People
Gunter + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gunter 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
Gunter: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gunter?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gunter 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 918,912 US residents.
Is Gunter a common name?
We classify Gunter as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 390 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gunter most popular?
The single biggest year for Gunter was 2015, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gunter is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gunter in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,023 people with the name Gunter, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,227 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 Gunter 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 Gunter?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gunter appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,022 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Gunter?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gunter is White at 90.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.5%) and Two or More Races (2.9%). 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 Gunter most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gunter in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.6% (927 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 Gunter in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gunter a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gunter 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 Gunter still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gunter 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 Gunter 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 Gunter?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Gunter at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.