Gary: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Gary has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 143 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 905,223 births with this name, split between 3,285 girls and 901,938 boys. Because the larger side of that split is boys, this page follows the boys ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Gary was 1952, when 38,753 boys received the name and it reached rank 10 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1952, Gary accounted for 1.99% of all recorded boys births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Gary by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Gary becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Gary can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

In the 1880s, Gary recorded 54 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 620, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1890s, Gary recorded 102 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 530, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1900s, Gary recorded 142 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 491, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1910s, Gary recorded 562 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 616, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1920s, Gary recorded 1,515 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 234, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. During the 1930s, Gary stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 21 and 43,594 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Gary stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 12 and 217,769 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1950s, Gary was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 9 and recording 329,935 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file.

During the 1960s, Gary stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 21 and 166,016 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1970s, Gary stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 35 and 68,265 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Gary stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 62 and 40,230 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1990s, Gary recorded 19,196 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 114, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2000s, Gary recorded 8,878 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 275, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2010s, Gary recorded 4,512 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 475, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Gary recorded 1,168 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 806, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among boys, and the share of all boys births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 547 to 187, a change of -65.8 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Gary stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Gary recorded 1,168 births for boys, and in 2010 it recorded 547. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Gary also appears on the girls side of the file, with 3,285 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 901,938 births recorded for boys, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the boys table only. Counting both sides together, Gary totals 905,223 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 51 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among boys and a rank earned among girls describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Gary with the full rankings for its peak year (1952) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Gary were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 187 boys named Gary, ranked 1130 among boys that year.

When was Gary most popular?
Gary peaked in 1952 with 38,753 births for boys, reaching rank 10 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Gary appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 905,223 births named Gary from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/