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Guinevere

#899 in 2025Girls' name

White phantom

Guinevere has been given to 4,592 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #899 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 299 recorded.

Babies named Guinevere, 2025

1 in 11,200

Guinevere over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Guinevere: meaning, origin, and history

White phantom

Proto-Celtic and Welsh

What Guinevere means

Guinevere means “white phantom”.

Origin, language, and formation

Guinevere is used in English. Its origins include Proto-Celtic and Welsh.

Guinevere comes through Middle English Gwenyver.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Jennifer.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Guinevere is pronounced /ˈɡwɪ.nə.vɪɹ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,592 girls were recorded with the name Guinevere between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 299 in 2022; its best national rank was #899 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,011 in 2020 to #899 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,350 in 2015 to #899 in 2025.

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 Guinevere?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 11,200
295 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 5,450
0.02% of girls
Rank, 2025
#899
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
7,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Guinevere 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 2025 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 5004%

Put another way: gather 7,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Guinevere. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Guineveres were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Guinevere was born before 2016 — so the typical Guinevere is around 9 today.

Median birth year
2016
About 9 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
35.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
77.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
4,201
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 35.7% of all recorded uses (1,641).

Is Guinevere 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
+47
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+112
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+451
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.68×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
98.7%
Peak was 2022 (299)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#899
2025

Spellings of Guinevere

Guinevere is the most-used spelling, taking 79.3% of the 5,791 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Guinevere is used

Across 2016–2025, Guinevere was most concentrated in Missouri — about 1 in 2,778 girls, against 1 in 7,260 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in 33,333).

336 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Missouri1 in 2,778
  2. 2Indiana1 in 3,226
  3. 3Ohio1 in 3,571
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 4,167
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 4,167
  6. 6Washington1 in 4,348
  7. 7Virginia1 in 4,545
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 5,000

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.

Guinevere around the world

Where Guinevere 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
    2005–2025
    #2,788
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2002–2024
    #2,104
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1982–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Guinevere

People whose public names include Guinevere, 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.

Guinevere in other languages

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

GinevraJuniperGuenevereJeniverGuenièvreGvendolin

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

Guinevere by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#899
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 112
Best rank ever
#899
2025
Peak year
2022
299 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,592
Count in 2025
295

Names similar to Guinevere

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

GwenevereGuinivereGuilianaGwenivereGuinnevereGuillerminaGwynevereCashmereSincereKashmereGuiliannaSyncereChinyereGuillermoGuiselleCyncereChimereGuenevereGweneviereGuillermaChereShamereGwynivereCincere

Names with a curve like Guinevere

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

LovePersephoneNyomiMaisyEzraTallulahAilaKeilaniAspynWaverlyCloverSerafina

Sibling names for Guinevere

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 Guinevere

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