Gary
Gary is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 187 births. Its best rank was 9th, in 1954.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1870.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 195238,753 births
- Best rank
- #9in 1954
- Since 1880
- 905,223people given the name
The story in the numbers
901,938 boys have been named Gary in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1952, with 38,753 births — 2.0% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 187 births in 2024, against 38,753 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1955, and the 1950s alone account for 37%. It has spent 140 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 56 of them in the top 100 and 5 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 3,285 girls have also been given it, 0.36% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Gary | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 54 | |
| 1890s | 102 | |
| 1900s | 142 | |
| 1910s | 562 | |
| 1920s | 1,515 | |
| 1930s | 43,594 | |
| 1940s | 217,769 | |
| 1950s | 329,935 | |
| 1960s | 166,016 | |
| 1970s | 68,265 | |
| 1980s | 40,230 | |
| 1990s | 19,196 | |
| 2000s | 8,878 | |
| 2010s | 4,512 | |
| 2020s | 1,168 |
In 1952, its biggest year
Gary was the 10th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1952 were James, Robert, John, Michael and David. See all of 1952.
Names that rose and fell with Gary
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Garrypeak 1954
- Dennispeak 1952
- Ronniepeak 1947
- Brucepeak 1956
- Butchpeak 1956
- Barrypeak 1962
- Donniepeak 1952
- Larrypeak 1947
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.