Gilbert

68,862 people in America carry this name — ranked #742 of 923.

Its American moment came before the war.

Say it GIHL burt

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

G IH1 L B ER0 T — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 68,862 2020 Census
  • Rank #742 Familiar
  • Per 100,000 22.8 about 1 in 4,813 people

Where Gilbert comes from and what it means

Teutonic in origin, reading literally as “bright pledge”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Gilbert has been given

130,028 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1930, with 2,138 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50s 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Gilbert

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Gilbert Thomas — runs together
  • Gilbert Timothy — runs together
  • Gilbert George — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

What Gilbert is called for short

Short forms as recorded in a 19th-century glossary of Christian names, so the list is old rather than complete.

A name from before the war

The year most children were called Gilbert was 1930. Names of that age tend to come back once their owners are grandparents.

Is Gilbert used for boys or for girls?

99.8% men
155 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where the name Gilbert is most common in the US

In New Mexico the name is given 6.7 times as often as it is across the country.

  • New Mexico ×6.7
  • Arizona ×3.2
  • Texas ×2.8
  • California ×2.3
  • Hawaii ×2.1

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

The same name abroad

  • Gib English
  • Gibbon English
  • Gysbert Dutch
  • Gisbert German
  • Gileber French
  • Gilberto Italian
  • Giselbert German
  • Gisebryht Dutch

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Who answers to it now

  • White alone (non-Hispanic) — 34.4%
  • Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 9.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino origin — 48.8%
  • Two or more races — 1.4%
  • Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 4.5%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 1.5%

Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.

Names built the same way as Gilbert

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

How to spell Gilbert

Gilbert is how 53% of them spell it — 129,324 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it Name Matcher

Enter a surname and hear which first names sit well with it.

The matcher is confident about clashes — rhymes, doubled sounds, colliding stresses — because those are facts about the phonemes. Ordering the names that pass is a set of rules, not a verdict on beauty.

Open Name Matcher on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Teutonic origin