Gerard

8,806 people in the United States were counted with the surname Gerard in the 2020 census, making it the 3,911th most common in the country. That is about one person in 33,900.

By the numbers

People: 8,806
Rank: 3,911th
How common: 1 in 33,900
Per 100,000: 3.0

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From Middle English Gerard, from Old French Gerart, from Frankish *Gaiʀahard.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Gerard described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 80.3%
Black, not Hispanic 9.8%
Hispanic or Latino 4.7%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.3%

Notable people called Gerard

François Gérard (1770–1837)French painter
Étienne Maurice Gérard (1773–1852)Marshal of France
Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville (1803–1847)French caricaturist
Vincent Gérard (born 1986)French handball player
Blessed Gerard (1047–1120)Founder of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Gil Gerard (1943–2025)American actor
Balthasar Gérard (1557–1584)assassin of William I of Orange
Marguerite Gérard (1761–1837)French painter and engraver

People named Gerard with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Gerard

Also a first name

Gerard has been given to 58,932 American babies as a first name since 1886, peaking in 1956. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.