Germaine

Where Germaine comes from

Wiktionary's etymology listing comes up empty for Germaine.

  • Latin
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Germaine through the years
  1. 1766
    Germaine de Staël born
    Genevan-French author
  2. 1895
    First appearance
    #1,426 among girls with 6 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1928
    Peak, #480
    203 babies named Germaine, the most in any year.
  4. 1939
    Germaine Greer born
    Australian writer and public intellectual
  5. 1940
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births, down to #762.
  6. 2023
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name. From this year on, more boys have.
In the dictionary
  • A surname transferred from the given name, a variant of Germain.
  • A male given name from Latin, in modern use transferred back from the surname.
  • A female given name from Latin transferred from the surname or borrowed from modern French.
Namesakes
  • Germaine de Staël · Genevan-French author, 1766–1817
  • Germaine Greer · Australian writer and public intellectual, born 1939
  • Germaine Dulac · French film director, 1882–1942
  • Germaine of Foix · Queen Consort of Aragon and Infanta of Navarre, 1488–1536

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.