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General

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

General has been given to 4,025 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1918, with 105 recorded.

Babies named General, 2024

1 in 478,000

General over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

General: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What General means

General is a given name.

The naming story behind General

Wikidata records General as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q79101312, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,025 boys were recorded with the name General between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 105 in 1918; its best national rank was #280 in 1885.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is General?

General had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 478,000
7 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 246,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
331,009 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where General 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 2024 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 331,009 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another General. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Generals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as General was born before 1928 — so the typical General is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
17.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
977
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 17.3% of all recorded uses (698).

Is General 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 1918 (105)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#280
1885

Where General is used

Across 1910–2025, General was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 11,111 boys, against 1 in 42,105 across all states with data. It was least common in Missouri (1 in —).

09 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 11,111
  2. 2Georgia1 in 16,667
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 20,000
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 25,000
  5. 5Kentucky1 in 25,000
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 25,000
  7. 7Mississippi1 in 33,333
  8. 8Tennessee1 in 50,000

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. General has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named General

People whose public names include General, 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.

General 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
#280
1885
Peak year
1918
105 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
4,025
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to General

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

GenesisGennaroGentryGenaroGenoGenuineGenevaGentleGennieOralGennadyTerralAdmiralDerralDarralGeneGenieJerralGenevieveGenerosoJeralGenovevoGenardEural

Names with a curve like General

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

ClemEarlyWinfieldAllieEddElzieElmoreWashingtonGarfieldGranvilleColumbusOdie

Sibling names for General

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 General

Top names of 1918, General's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1885More old man namesBoys' names starting with G