Gary Boy
How popular is Gary?
#1,073 boy name in 2025
201 baby boys were named Gary in the US in 2025, making it the 1073rd most popular boy name.
Gary popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #1,073 for boys (▲ 60 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 201 boys |
| 10-year trend | Falling fast (-58% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #581 in 2015, #806 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1952 (38,754 boys) |
| Highest rank | #9 in 1954 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 100% boys, 0% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Gary counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Gary family of names ranked #947 for boys in 2025 (#978 the year before), with 216 babies in all.
| Spelling | Boys in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Gary | 201 | 93% |
| Garry | 15 | 7% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Gary is most popular
Babies named Gary per 1,000 boys born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
Gary by decade
| Decade | Baby boys | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 54 | #611 |
| 1890s | 102 | #525 |
| 1900s | 142 | #489 |
| 1910s | 562 | #605 |
| 1920s | 1,515 | #234 |
| 1930s | 43,596 | #21 |
| 1940s | 217,772 | #12 |
| 1950s | 329,933 | #9 |
| 1960s | 166,031 | #21 |
| 1970s | 68,261 | #35 |
| 1980s | 40,230 | #62 |
| 1990s | 19,194 | #114 |
| 2000s | 8,879 | #275 |
| 2010s | 4,512 | #475 |
| 2020s | 1,369 | #806 |
Boy names about as popular as Gary
Questions
- Is Gary a boy or girl name?
- Gary is mostly a boy name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Gary were boys.
- How popular is the name Gary?
- 201 baby boys were named Gary in the US in 2025, making it the 1073rd most popular boy name.
- When was Gary most popular?
- Gary peaked in 1952, when 38,754 boys were given the name. Its highest rank was #9 in 1954.
- How many people are named Gary?
- 905,438 babies have been named Gary in the US since 1880. We estimate about 611,181 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 68.
- Where is Gary most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Gary was most common in Georgia, at 0.2 of every 1,000 boys born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.