Gwendoline
A feminine name of Celtic origin meaning "white ring" or "fair one".
Name Census estimates that about 181 living Americans carry the first name Gwendoline. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gwendoline today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gwendoline births was 1924 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gwendoline. 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 Gwendoline with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
181
~ 1 in 1,893,670 Americans
Peak year
1924
13 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,774
Tracked since 1893
Census
Gwendoline in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 714 people with the first name Gwendoline, which placed it at #15,948 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
#15,948
National first-name rank
People counted
714
714 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gwendoline
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gwendoline is White at 57.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Hispanic (8.3%). 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 Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.4% · 410
- Black or African American25.5% · 182
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 59
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 36
- Two or more races3.8% · 27
Popularity
Gwendoline: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gwendoline from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 71 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Gwendoline remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gwendoline
The name Gwendoline has its origins in the Celtic languages of Britain, specifically the Welsh language. It is a feminine form of the Welsh name Gwendoleu, which is derived from the elements "gwen" meaning fair or white, and "doleu" meaning ring or circle.
Gwendoline can be traced back to medieval times, with one of the earliest known references being in the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion, a collection of prose stories from the 12th and 13th centuries. In these tales, Gwendoline appears as the name of a beautiful and virtuous woman.
The name gained popularity in England during the Middle Ages, particularly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was favored by Norman nobility and was often anglicized as Gwendolen or Gwendolyne. One notable figure from this period was Gwendolen, Countess of March (1354-1403), who was a powerful landowner and patron of the arts.
During the Renaissance period, the name Gwendoline was used by several notable literary figures. In Edmund Spenser's epic poem "The Faerie Queene" (1590), Gwendoline is portrayed as a virtuous and loyal character. William Shakespeare also used the name in his play "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1602), where Gwendoline is a character mentioned in passing.
In the 19th century, the name Gwendoline experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly in England and Wales. This was likely due to the influence of the Romantic movement and a renewed interest in Celtic culture. One famous bearer of the name from this period was Gwendoline Christie (1854-1924), an English novelist and playwright.
Other notable historical figures with the name Gwendoline include Gwendoline Chevreuse (1865-1961), a French actress and artist's model; Gwendoline Courtney (1909-1993), an Australian actress and singer; and Gwendoline Laxon (1945-2018), a British actress and author.
People
Gwendoline + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gwendoline 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
Gwendoline: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gwendoline?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 181 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gwendoline 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 1,893,670 US residents.
Is Gwendoline a common name?
We classify Gwendoline as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 350 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gwendoline most popular?
The single biggest year for Gwendoline was 1924, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 714 people with the name Gwendoline, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,948 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 Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gwendoline appears almost entirely female. Of the 717 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 Gwendoline?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gwendoline is White at 57.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.5%) and Hispanic (8.3%). 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 Gwendoline most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gwendoline in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.4% (410 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 Gwendoline in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gwendoline a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gwendoline 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 Gwendoline 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 have the name Gwendoline?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.