Garrett
surname · Latin script
Meaning: From Gerard or Gerald, Norman names of Germanic origin meaning literally ‘spear-brave/strong’ or ‘spear-rule’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɡɛɹɪt/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Garrett is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Liberia it is the most common surname.
- LRLiberia≈1 in 947(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 2.9K
- USUnited States1 in 3K
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.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #865 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 571 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 947 (inferred from the name graph)
≈510,000 people, est.
of 19M surnames
Highest-authority source
Liberia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Gerard or Gerald, Norman names of Germanic origin meaning literally ‘spear-brave/strong’ or ‘spear-rule’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Garrett 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈510,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.7K | — | Garrett | 17 |
| US United States | #243 | 110,697 | 1 in 3K | 116K | Garrett | 571 |
| GB United Kingdom | #354 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.5K | 3 | Garrett | 232 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 9K | — | Garrett | 8 |
| IT Italy | #513 | ≈9,600 est. | ≈1 in 6.5K | — | Garrett | 35 |
| LR Liberia | #1 | ≈5,400 est. | ≈1 in 947 | — | Garrett | 6 |
| NZ New Zealand | #279 | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 2.9K | — | Garrett | 97 |
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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present). 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)
Garrett 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 English, Anglicised from Gearoid/Gioroid, from Gerald; no connection with Gareth.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, from either of two Germanic personal names introduced to Britain by the Normans: Gerard, composed of the elements gar, ger ‘spear’, ‘lance’ -ihard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’; and Gerald, composed of the elements gdr, ger ‘spear’, ‘lance’ + wald ‘rule’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, A surname originating as a patronymic.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Variant of Gerard; spear warrior.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In English, English; spear man
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
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)
- Elizabeth Garrett Andersonb. 1836GBEnglish physician and feminist (1836-1917)
- Robert Garrettb. 1875USAmerican athlete and collector (1875-1961)
- Betty Garrettb. 1919USAmerican actress, comedian, singer, and dancer (1919–2011)
- Hank Garrettb. 1931USAmerican actor
- Dee Dee Bridgewaterb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer (born 1950)
- Brad Garrettb. 1960USAmerican actor and stand-up comedian
- Kenny Garrettb. 1960USAmerican musician
- Spencer Garrettb. 1963USAmerican actor
- David Garrettb. 1980DEGerman violinist
- Beau Garrettb. 1982USAmerican actress and model
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 56 sources across 34 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 111K | #279 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 108K | #253 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 103K | #301 |
| GB United Kingdom | A Dictionary of Surnames (Hanks & Hodges, 1988) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Garrett mean, and where does it come from?
- From Gerard or Gerald, Norman names of Germanic origin meaning literally ‘spear-brave/strong’ or ‘spear-rule’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How common is the name Garrett?
- In the United States, the national register counted 110,697 people named Garrett in 2010, about 1 in 3.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Garrett compared with other names?
- In Liberia, Garrett is the most common surname of 10,200 surnames recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Garrett?
- A machine transcription gives /ɡɛɹɪt/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Garrett have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 508 thousand people named Garrett in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled garrett.
What do you want to know about Garrett?
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/garrettThe 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, “Garrett” — the most common surname in Liberia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.