Gustavo

73,690 people in America carry this name — ranked #698 of 923.

Most Americans carrying it were born this century.

Say it guhs TAH voh

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

G AH0 S T AA1 V OW0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

People counted 73,690 2020 Census
Rank #698 Familiar
Per 100,000 24.4 about 1 in 4,498 people

The meaning and origin of Gustavo

Teutonic in origin, reading literally as “Goth’s staff”.

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.

Gustavo name popularity by year

38,274 babies were given this name since 1911. The busiest year was 2000, with 1,295 of them.

1.9k 3k 4.9k 9k 11k 5.7k

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s. 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 Gustavo

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

Gustavo George — same opening
Gustavo Gerald — same opening
Gustavo Oscar — runs together

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.

Is Gustavo used for boys or for girls?

99.8% men

145 women

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

The states where Gustavo is most common

In California the name is given 3.2 times as often as it is across the country.

California ×3.2
Texas ×2.5
Arizona ×2.3
Nevada ×1.9
Illinois ×1.2

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.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

The same name elsewhere

Gust Dutch
Gusts Lett
Gosta Swedish
Kustav Esth
Kustas Esth
Gustav German
Gustaf Swedish
Gjosta Swedish
Gustave French
Gozstav Swedish

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.

Who has this name today

White alone (non-Hispanic) — 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino origin — 94.6%

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.

Full names people carry

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.

Names with the same rhythm as Gustavo

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 — 3 syllables, stress on the second

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

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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