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Gardner vs Garry

American parents have registered 47,849 Garrys since 1880, against 3,026 Gardners. But in 2025 it was Gardner that was commoner, 24 babies to 15.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gardner against Garry, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gardner Garry

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 138 years in which either name was published, Garry for 99 years and Gardner for 39 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Gardner Garry
Total US births 3,02647,849
Most in one year 652,229
Babies in 2025 2415
Estimated living today 1,40032,000
Median age today 5367
Peak year 19151954
Best rank 741st boys138th boys
Rank in 2025 5,045th5,861st
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 10 / 3,016179 / 47,670

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Garrys alive today are over 67; half the Gardners are over 53. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Gardner and Garry.