Gary
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary
A male name· listed as male by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 57 countries · latest register: SSA, 2025
/ˈɡeɹi/(recorded in a dictionary) English · from Wiktionary
Gary is a male given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 52nd most common given name.
- IEIreland≈1 in 260(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 270
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 280
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Gary itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #122 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 648 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 255 (inferred from the name graph)
656,593 people, 2020
of 15M given names, spellings grouped
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary.
Cited for this meaning 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Gary, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Gary counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #52 | 656,593 | 1 in 507 | 656K | Gary | 648 |
| GB United Kingdom | #49 | ≈260,000 est. | ≈1 in 271 | 4 | Gary | 375 |
| CA Canada | #43 | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 313 | 2 | Gary | 303 |
| PH Philippines | #464 | ≈89,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.3K | — | Gary | 142 |
| AU Australia | #71 | ≈77,000 est. | ≈1 in 352 | 79 | Gary | 293 |
| IE Ireland | #30 | ≈21,000 est. | ≈1 in 255 | 7 | Gary | 152 |
| SG Singapore | #19 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 316 | — | Gary | 150 |
| NZ New Zealand | #42 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 278 | 13 | Gary | 177 |
656,593 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Gary is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Modern English name, often from a Germanic surname root meaning ‘spear’.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Perhaps a form of Gerald; used in Ireland and popularised by actor Gary Cooper.
as a nameIrish first names
In French, English name, likely from Gary/Gérard; modern given name.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
This is perhaps a form of Gerald. It has been used from time to time in Ireland. In the 1930s the American film actor, Gary Cooper, made the name a popular one.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, Respelling of Swiss German Gehri or Gehry, variants of Gehr.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Gary Cooperb. 1901USAmerican actor (1901–1961)
- Gary Stanley Beckerb. 1930USAmerican economist (1930-2014)
- Steve Wozniakb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican computer pioneer, inventor, computer engineer and programmer; co-founder of Apple Inc.
- Gary Mooreb. 1952GBNorthern Irish musician (1952–2011)
- Gary Siniseb. 1955USAmerican actor
- Gary Oldmanb. 1958GBBritish actor and filmmaker (born 1958)
- Gary Petersb. 1958USAmerican politician and naval officer (born 1958)
- Gary Linekerb. 1960GBEnglish football pundit and former player
- Gary Trousdaleb. 1960USAmerican director and actor
- Gary Nevilleb. 1975GBEnglish football pundit and former playe
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)107 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 57 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 656K | #58 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 828 | #58 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 201 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 1984 | 79 | #88 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 1985 | 44 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1997 | 13 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2023 | 12 | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 7 | #443 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1997 | 6 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2023 | 2 | #1,431 |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Gary a male or female name?
- Gary is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), France (INSEE, 2024), Ecuador (INEC, 2024) and Spain (INE), among others.
- What does the name Gary mean, and where does it come from?
- Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How do you pronounce Gary?
- In English /ˈɡeɹi/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Gary have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 657 thousand people named Gary, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gary.
- How common is the name Gary?
- In the United States, the national register counted 656,593 people named Gary in 2020, about 1 in 507 residents.
- How common is Gary compared with other names?
- In the United States, Gary is the 52nd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gary?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/garyThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gary” — the 52nd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.