Gary
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Gary is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 19th most common given name. Recorded meaning: Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary.
- IEIreland≈1 in 261(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 271
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 284
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)
- #122 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 648 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 261 (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,800,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gary 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 | — | ≈4,800,000 est. | ≈1 in 293 | — | Gary | 107 |
| US United States | #52 | 656,593 | 1 in 507 | 656K | Gary | 648 |
| GB United Kingdom | #49 | ≈240,000 est. | ≈1 in 271 | 4 | Gary | 375 |
| CA Canada | #43 | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 335 | 2 | Gary | 303 |
| IT Italy | #144 | ≈93,000 est. | ≈1 in 668 | 1 | Gary | 98 |
| IE Ireland | #30 | ≈20,000 est. | ≈1 in 261 | 7 | Gary | 152 |
| NZ New Zealand | #42 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 284 | 13 | Gary | 177 |
| SG Singapore | #19 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 366 | — | Gary | 150 |
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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–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)
Gary 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, Modern English name, often from a Germanic surname root meaning ‘spear’.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Perhaps a form of Gerald; used in Ireland and popularised by actor Gary Cooper.
as a nameIrish first names
In French, English name, likely from Gary/Gérard; modern given name.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
This is perhaps a form of Gerald. It has been used from time to time in Ireland. In the 1930s the American film actor, Gary Cooper, made the name a popular one.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, Respelling of Swiss German Gehri or Gehry, variants of Gehr.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
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)
- Gary Cooperb. 1901USAmerican actor (1901–1961)
- Gary Stanley Beckerb. 1930USAmerican economist (1930-2014)
- Steve Wozniakb. 1950USnot in their usual nameAmerican computer pioneer, inventor, computer engineer and programmer; co-founder of Apple Inc.
- Gary Mooreb. 1952GBNorthern Irish musician (1952–2011)
- Gary Siniseb. 1955USAmerican actor
- Gary Oldmanb. 1958GBBritish actor and filmmaker (born 1958)
- Gary Petersb. 1958USAmerican politician and naval officer (born 1958)
- Gary Linekerb. 1960GBEnglish football pundit and former player
- Gary Trousdaleb. 1960USAmerican director and actor
- Gary Nevilleb. 1975GBEnglish football pundit and former playe
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 107 sources across 57 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 656K | #58 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 828 | #58 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 201 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1997 | 13 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2023 | 12 | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 7 | #443 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1997 | 6 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2023 | 2 | #1,431 |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- 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)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
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 Gary mean, and where does it come from?
- Either a different form of Geary or a shortened form of McGary. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- Is Gary a male or female name?
- Gary 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.
- In which country does Gary have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.8 million people named Gary in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gary.
- How common is the name Gary?
- In the United States, the national register counted 656,593 people named Gary in 2020, about 1 in 507 residents.
- How common is Gary compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Gary is the 19th most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gary?
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/garyThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Gary” — the 19th most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.