Gerhard
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from Germanic *ger- 'spear' + *hard- 'strong, hard'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈɡeːɐ̯haʁt/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gerhard is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 26th most common given name.
- DEGermany≈1 in 201(inferred from the name graph)
- ATAustria≈1 in 224
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 2.5K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 291 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 201 (inferred from the name graph)
≈400,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from Germanic *ger- 'spear' + *hard- 'strong, hard'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gerhard counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #26 | ≈400,000 est. | ≈1 in 201 | — | Gerhard | 268 |
| AT Austria | #18 | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 224 | 2.5K | Gerhard | 187 |
| ZA South Africa | #826 | ≈22,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.5K | — | Gerhard | 101 |
| CN China | — | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 93K | — | Gerhard | 14 |
| SE Sweden | — | 4,654 | 1 in 2.2K | 4.7K | — | 40 |
| CH Switzerland | #186 | ≈3,100 est. | ≈1 in 2.8K | 410 | Gerhard | 90 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Gerhard is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Germanic ger + hard, 'spear' + 'strong'.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In German, patronymisch zu Gerhard, mit ahd. gēr 'Speer' + ahd. harti/herti 'hart, stark'; Familiennamen aus der Vollform. Bearer count: 161
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, patronymischer Familienname zu Rufname Gerhard (ger- + -hard, etwa 'speer-kräftig, stark')
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, Patronymischer Familienname zu Rufname Gerhard; Varianten teils mit eingeschobenem n bzw. Angleichung an -hart. Dialekt-/Formenreihe auch zu Gernhard, Gernert, Gernet, Gerner, Gernart, Görnhardt.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, Familienname zu den Rufnamen Gerhard, Germann/Germanus und Gerwin; patronymische Bildung. Keine Bearerzahl auf der Seite genannt.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Gerhard Mercatorb. 1512BEFlemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer (1512–1594)
- Gerhard Armauer Hansenb. 1841NONorwegian physician
- Gerhard Domagkb. 1895DEGerman bacteriologist (1895-1964)
- Gerhard Herzbergb. 1904DEGerman-Canadian physicist and physical chemist (1904-1999)
- Gerhard Richterb. 1932DEGerman visual artist (b. 1932)
- Gerhard Ertlb. 1936DEGerman physicist
- Gerhard Schröderb. 1944DEChancellor of West Germany (1998–2005)
- Gerd Müllerb. 1945DEnot in their usual nameGerman footballer (1945–2021)
- Dan Brownb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican novelist (born 1964)
- Jens Lehmannb. 1969DEnot in their usual nameGerman association football player (born 1969)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 84 sources across 37 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 4.7K | #637 |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2024 | 2.5K | #819 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 690 | — |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — Vornamen der Geborenen (1984–present) | 2024 | 4 | #889 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Gerhard mean, and where does it come from?
- from Germanic *ger- 'spear' + *hard- 'strong, hard' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- In which country does Gerhard have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 399 thousand people named Gerhard in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gerhard.
- What are other forms of the name Gerhard?
- In the etymology graph, Gerardo, Gerard and Gérard are forms of the same name in other languages; Kai, Gerd and Gert are recorded short or pet forms.
- How do you pronounce Gerhard?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɡeːɐ̯haʁt/ (IPA) for German.
- Is Gerhard a male or female name?
- Gerhard is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Gerhard?
- In Sweden, the national register counted 4,654 people named Gerhard, about 1 in 2.2 thousand residents.
- How common is Gerhard compared with other names?
- In Germany, Gerhard is the 26th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gerhard?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/gerhardThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gerhard” — the 26th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.