Gerald

Where Gerald comes from

From Old French, ultimately from Frankish *gaiʀ (“spear”) + *wald (“might, power”). The name was brought to England by the Normans. It survived in Ireland, and was revived in the 19th century.
— Wiktionary's entry for Gerald
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #571 among boys — 11 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1913
    Gerald Ford born
    president of the United States from 1974 to 1977
  3. 1929
    Gerald Edelman born
    American biologist
  4. 1939
    Peak, #19
    10,057 babies named Gerald — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #60.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Gerald Ford · president of the United States from 1974 to 1977, 1913–2006
  • Gerald Edelman · American biologist, 1929–2014
  • Gerald Vanenburg · Dutch association football player, born 1964
  • Gerald Durrell · British naturalist and writer, 1925–1995
  • Gerald Asamoah · German association football player, born 1978

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.