George

Where George comes from

Name of an early saint, from Middle English George, from Latin Geōrgius, from Ancient Greek Γεώργῐος (Geṓrgĭos), from γεωργός (geōrgós, “farmer, earth worker”), from γῆ (gê, “earth”) (combining form γεω- (geō-)) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”) Doublet of Jorge and Geevarghese. The aircraft autopilot sense is probably from George DeBeeson, who patented an early (1931) autopilot system, and/or a reference to the expression let George do it. The Pullman porter sense derives from George Pullman, who hired Black people to staff his sleeping cars, and the patrons of the service seeing the Black people as servants of George Porter, much like how a slave was named after the master.
— Wiktionary's entry for George
  • Ancient Greek
  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1732
    George Washington born
    Founding Father and first U.S. president
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #5 among boys — 5,126 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1911
    Peak, #4
    6,586 babies named George — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1946
    George W. Bush born
    43rd President of the United States
  5. 1995
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #115.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Ancient Greek.
  • A diminutive of the female given names Georgina and Georgia; also used in the conjoined name George Ann(e).
Namesakes
  • George W. Bush · 43rd President of the United States, born 1946
  • George Washington · Founding Father and first U.S. president, 1732–1799
  • George Orwell · British writer and journalist, 1903–1950
  • George H. W. Bush · 41st President of the United States, 1924–2018
  • George Bernard Shaw · Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist, 1856–1950

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.