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Gustava

Girls' name

Geats + staff, through Gustav

Gustava has been given to 385 babies in the U.S. since 1888. 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 1923, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Gustava, 1942

1 in 546,000

Gustava over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gustava: meaning, origin, and history

Geats + staff, through Gustav

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gustava means

Gustava belongs to the name family reached through Gustava → Gustav. Its meaning is “Geats + staff”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gustava is used in Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gustav.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 385 girls were recorded with the name Gustava between 1888 and 1942. Its highest annual count was 20 in 1923; its best national rank was #1,042 in 1892.

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 Gustava?

Gustava had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1942, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1942
1 in 546,000
5 of 2,731,825 births
Among girls only
1 in 270,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1942
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
378,713 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gustava 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 1942 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 378,713 children born in 1942 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gustava. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gustavas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gustava was born before 1919 — so the typical Gustava is around 106 today.

Median birth year
1919
About 106 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
33.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 33.2% of all recorded uses (128).

Is Gustava 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 1923 (20)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,042
1892

Spellings of Gustava

Gustava is not the most common spelling — Gusta is, with 60.0% against Gustava's 40.0%.

  • Gusta60.0%578
  • Gustava40.0%385

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 Gustava is used

Across 1910–2025, Gustava was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 226,771 across all states with data. It was least common in Louisiana (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arkansas1 in 100,000
  2. 2Kentucky1 in —
  3. 3Louisiana1 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. Gustava has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gustava 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
#1,042
1892
Peak year
1923
20 that year
First recorded
1888
Last recorded
1942
All-time count
385
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gustava

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

GustaviaGustavoZahavaAhavaZehavaNaavaGustaGustieGustineMiroslavaHavaAavaNyavaDavaDeavaNavaTavaChavaMavaShadavaGustinaOctavaGussieGustena

Sibling names for Gustava

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 Gustava

Top names of 1923, Gustava's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1892Girls' names starting with GUncommon Swedish Girl Names