Germaine

Where Germaine comes from

The dictionaries list Germaine as a given name — a surname transferred from the given name, a variant of Germain — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Latin
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1766
    Germaine de Staël born
    Genevan-French author
  2. 1895
    First appearance
    #1,426 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1928
    Peak, #480
    203 babies named Germaine — more than any year before or since.
  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 it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
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.