Humanverse

Gerad vs Geraldine

American parents have registered 212,097 Geraldines since 1880, against 594 Gerads. Geraldine is still ahead, with 73 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gerad against Geraldine, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gerad Geraldine

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Geraldine has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1986, when Gerad had 33 and Geraldine had 122.

Side by side

  Gerad Geraldine
Total US births 594212,097
Most in one year 355,471
Babies in 2025 under 573
Estimated living today 56077,000
Median age today 4076
Peak year 19821930
Best rank 1,677th boys43rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,438th
First recorded 19521880
Girls / boys 0 / 594211,349 / 748

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Geraldines alive today are over 76; half the Gerads are over 40. That is 36 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Gerad and Geraldine.