Name Awesome

Gerda

Girls' name

Protection

Gerda has been given to 1,099 babies in the U.S. since 1887. 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 1915, with 49 recorded.

Babies named Gerda, 1972

1 in 449,000

Gerda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gerda: meaning, origin, and history

Protection

Germanic languages and English

What Gerda means

Gerda means “protection”, associated with garðr.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Latinate variant of Scandinavian Gerd, from Old Norse Gerðr, garðr (“protection”). The name occurs in nineteenth century Swedish poetry and in Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen (1844).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Gerda is used in English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese and German and additional language sections. Its origins include Germanic languages and English.

Gerda comes through Old Norse Gerðr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gerd and Gertrud.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Gerda is pronounced [ˈɡɛrda].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,099 girls were recorded with the name Gerda between 1887 and 1972. Its highest annual count was 49 in 1915; its best national rank was #891 in 1899.

How common is Gerda?

Gerda had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1972, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1972
1 in 449,000
7 of 3,142,796 births
Among girls only
1 in 217,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1972
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
311,204 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gerda sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1972 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 311,204 children born in 1972 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gerda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gerdas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gerda was born before 1924 — so the typical Gerda is around 101 today.

Median birth year
1924
About 101 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
23.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
13.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
138
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 23.7% of all recorded uses (260).

Is Gerda 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 1915 (49)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#891
1899

Spellings of Gerda

Gerda is not the most common spelling — Vera is, with 21.9% against Gerda's 0.16%.

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 Gerda is used

Across 1910–2025, Gerda was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 436,651 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 100,000
  2. 2North Dakota1 in 100,000
  3. 3New York1 in 100,000
  4. 4Wisconsin1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Gerda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gerda around the world

Where Gerda 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.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2016
    #4,763
    in 2016
  • Ireland
    2008–2014
    #752
    in 2014
  • France
    1901–1983
    #3,037
    in 1983
  • Norway
    1880–2017
    #520
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1946–1970
    #707
    in 1970

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Gerda by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#891
1899
Peak year
1915
49 that year
First recorded
1887
Last recorded
1972
All-time count
1,099
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gerda

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

GerardaGerrieGermanyGerthaGermaniGeraldGerriWardaNardaGerryCordaGerilynGeralBirdaVirdaMardaGerlineGerylShardaLaverdaGerreGereneGeralineGeri

Sibling names for Gerda

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 Gerda

Top names of 1915, Gerda's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1899Girls' names starting with GShort German Girl Names