Name Awesome

Gerold

Boys' name

Form of Gerald

Gerold has been given to 2,966 babies in the U.S. since 1912. 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 1939, with 90 recorded.

Babies named Gerold, 2002

1 in 467,000

Gerold over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gerold: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Gerald

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gerold means

Gerold is a form of Gerald.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Gerold is used in German and Germanic.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɡeː.ʁɔlt/ for Gerold.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Gerold → Gerald. The family’s proposed meaning is “spear + might, power”, recorded in English with the source elements gaiʀ and wald.

Origin, language, and formation

Gerold is used in German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gerald.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,966 boys were recorded with the name Gerold between 1912 and 2002. Its highest annual count was 90 in 1939; its best national rank was #614 in 1939.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Gerold?

Gerold had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2002, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2002
1 in 467,000
8 of 3,737,275 births
Among boys only
1 in 243,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2002
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
323,811 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gerold 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 2002 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 323,811 children born in 2002 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gerold. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gerolds were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gerold was born before 1947 — so the typical Gerold is around 78 today.

Median birth year
1947
About 78 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
22.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,314
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 22.4% of all recorded uses (663).

Is Gerold 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 1939 (90)
Years since peak
86
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#614
1939

Spellings of Gerold

Gerold is not the most common spelling — Harold is, with 48.7% against Gerold's 0.26%.

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 Gerold is used

Across 1910–2025, Gerold was most concentrated in Wisconsin — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 155,516 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Wisconsin1 in 33,333
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in 100,000
  4. 4Kansas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Michigan1 in 100,000
  6. 6Minnesota1 in 100,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 100,000
  8. 8Georgia1 in —

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

Gerold around the world

Where Gerold 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
    1984–1984
    #2,952
    in 1984
  • South Australia
    1962–1964
    #557
    in 1964

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Gerold

People whose public names include Gerold, 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.

Gerold in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Gerold. Linked forms have their own page here.

GerdGeraldGerardGerritGirardGerardoGerhardGertGeertGjertGéraldGérardGellértGeralltGiraldoGerardus

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Gerold 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
#614
1939
Peak year
1939
90 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2002
All-time count
2,966
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gerold

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

GerritGersonGeromeGeremyGeraldoGermanGeronimoGermaineGermainGershonGerhardGerrardLeopoldGerryGerogeReynoldGaroldGerrodDaroldGerrenGerardGerroldGeremiahGeralt

Names with a curve like Gerold

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

WindellJereLynwoodNancyLindellArlynAllynDennieGlynnGaylonLawranceHerb

Sibling names for Gerold

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 Gerold

Top names of 1939, Gerold's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1939Boys' names starting with GNorman Boy Names