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Gustaf

Boys' name

Variant of Gustav

Gustaf has been given to 747 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 1917, with 25 recorded.

Babies named Gustaf, 2023

1 in 663,000

Gustaf over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gustaf: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Gustav

Swedish

What Gustaf means

Gustaf is a variant of Gustav.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Gustaf is used in Swedish.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɡɵs.stav/ for Gustaf.

Meaning behind the documented name family

Gustaf is a variant of Gustav. Gustav has more than one origin or interpretation.

Origin, language, and formation

Gustaf is used in English and Swedish. Its origins include Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gustav.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 747 boys were recorded with the name Gustaf between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 25 in 1917; its best national rank was #584 in 1884.

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 Gustaf?

Gustaf had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gustaf 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 2023 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 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gustaf. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gustafs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gustaf was born before 1922 — so the typical Gustaf is around 103 today.

Median birth year
1922
About 103 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
19.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
16.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
254
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 19.9% of all recorded uses (149).

Is Gustaf 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 1917 (25)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#584
1884

Spellings of Gustaf

Gustaf is not the most common spelling — Gustavo is, with 64.8% against Gustaf's 1.2%.

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 Gustaf is used

Across 1910–2025, Gustaf was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,099,304 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in —
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in —
  3. 3Minnesota1 in —
  4. 4New York1 in —
  5. 5Pennsylvania1 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. Gustaf has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gustaf around the world

Where Gustaf 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
    2003–2007
    #4,333
    in 2007
  • South Australia
    2002–2002
    #606
    in 2002

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

Gustaf 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
#584
1884
Peak year
1917
25 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
747
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gustaf

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

GussieGustavGustaboGustinGustaveGussGustGustavusMustafGustavoGusterGustasGusGustieGustonGustyGustauoAltaf

Sibling names for Gustaf

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 Gustaf

Top names of 1917, Gustaf's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with GSwedish Boy NamesSwedish Names