Name Awesome

Gaylord

Boys' name

Strong

Gaylord has been given to 6,091 babies in the U.S. since 1882. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1931, with 168 recorded.

Babies named Gaylord, 1998

1 in 735,000

Gaylord over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gaylord: meaning, origin, and history

Strong

surname transfer

What Gaylord means

Gaylord means “strong”, associated with gaillard.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Derived from the Old French surname Gaillard (from gaillard (“strong”)), via Anglo-Norman.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Gaylord (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Gaylord is used in English and French. Its origins include surname transfer.

Gaylord is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Gaylord is pronounced /ˈɡeɪˌlɔɹd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,086 boys were recorded with the name Gaylord between 1882 and 1998. Its highest annual count was 168 in 1931; its best national rank was #438 in 1931.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Gaylord between 1942 and 1942. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1942; its best national rank was #4,879 in 1942.

How common is Gaylord?

Gaylord had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1998, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1998
1 in 735,000
5 of 3,677,189 births
Among boys only
1 in 382,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1998
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
509,768 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gaylord sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1998 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 509,768 children born in 1998 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gaylord. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gaylords were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gaylord was born before 1936 — so the typical Gaylord is around 89 today.

Median birth year
1936
About 89 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
20.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,371
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 20.9% of all recorded uses (1,270).

Is Gaylord rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1931 (168)
Years since peak
94
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#438
1931

Spellings of Gaylord

Gaylord is not the most common spelling — Taylor is, with 81.1% against Gaylord's 4.3%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Gaylord is used

Across 1910–2025, Gaylord was most concentrated in Nebraska — about 1 in 7,143 boys, against 1 in 31,636 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Nebraska1 in 7,143
  2. 2Iowa1 in 7,692
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 10,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 12,500
  5. 5Hawaii1 in 14,286
  6. 6Kansas1 in 16,667
  7. 7Minnesota1 in 16,667
  8. 8Illinois1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Gaylord has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gaylord around the world

Where Gaylord ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1979–2013
    #6,707
    in 2013

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Gaylord

People whose public names include Gaylord, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Gaylord by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#438
1931
Peak year
1931
168 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
1998
All-time count
6,086
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,879
1942
Peak year
1942
5 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
1942
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gaylord

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RayfordWilfordRexfordSanfordStanfordCrawfordGaylonBufordStaffordMilfordWinfordRadfordGayleGaylandGaylenAlfordBradfordAshfordManfordGiffordBedfordFordGilfordMelford

Names with a curve like Gaylord

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Gaylord, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GailSherwoodBoyceCarrolRollinBeverlyBonnieOthaWinfordBurlVerlinLoy

Sibling names for Gaylord

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Gaylord

Top names of 1931, Gaylord's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1931Boys' names starting with G