Greg

Where Greg comes from

The dictionaries list Greg as a given name — a diminutive of the male given names Gregory and Gregor, from English or Scottish (sometimes derived from the surname Greig) — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 1 syllable
Along the way
  1. 1915
    First appearance
    #3,082 among boys, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1957
    Greg Abbott born
    Governor of Texas since 2015
  3. 1961
    Peak, #77
    5,397 babies named Greg — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1963
    Greg Kinnear born
    American actor
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #126.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given names Gregory and Gregor, from English or Scottish (sometimes derived from the surname Greig).
Namesakes
  • Greg Abbott · Governor of Texas since 2015, born 1957
  • Greg Kinnear · American actor, born 1963
  • Greg Louganis · American Olympic springboard and platform diver, born 1960
  • Greg Bear · American writer best known for science fiction, 1951–2022
  • Greg Van Avermaet · Belgian cyclist, born 1985

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.