Gertrude

Where Gertrude comes from

From Old French [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *gaizaz (“spear”) + *þrūþiz (“strength”) or *trut- (“maiden, dear”) ; name of a Belgian seventh century saint.
— Wiktionary's entry for Gertrude
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1874
    Gertrude Stein born
    American author
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #25 among girls — 787 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1906
    Peak, #22
    2,375 babies named Gertrude — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1918
    Gertrude B. Elion born
    American biochemist and pharmacologist
  5. 1938
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #172.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Gertrude B. Elion · American biochemist and pharmacologist, 1918–1999
  • Gertrude Stein · American author, 1874–1946
  • Gertrude Bell · British traveller, writer, mountaineer, politician, archaeologist and spy, 1868–1926
  • Gertrude Ederle · American swimmer, 1905–2003
  • Gertrude Jekyll · Garden designer, artist, editor, 1843–1932

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.