Gerhard

Where Gerhard comes from

Gerhard hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1882
    First appearance
    #837 among boys, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1885
    Peak, #439
    17 babies named Gerhard — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1886
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  4. 1895
    Gerhard Domagk born
    German bacteriologist
  5. 1944
    Gerhard Schröder born
    Chancellor of West Germany
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Gerhard Schröder · Chancellor of West Germany, born 1944
  • Gerhard Domagk · German bacteriologist, 1895–1964
  • Gerhard Ertl · German physicist, born 1936
  • Gerhard Herzberg · German-Canadian physicist and physical chemist, 1904–1999
  • Gerhard Richter · German visual artist, born 1932

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.