Gemma
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: Italian for ‘gem’; used in Ireland for St Gemma Galgani (died 1903)
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Gemma is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Philippines than in any other country.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 740(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 1.2K
- ESSpain1 in 1.6K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Gemma itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Philippines (inferred from the name graph)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 374 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 740 (inferred from the name graph)
≈150,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Philippines, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Jema in TZ Tanzania.
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)
Latin gemma, 'gem, precious stone'; originally 'bud, shoot' from the notion of a budding plant.
Sources 1
- Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios
Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.
How Gemma is read(measured from records)
Gemma is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English64%
Italian for ‘gem’; used in Ireland for St Gemma Galgani (died 1903).
as a nameIrish first names
vernacular pronunciation of James, used for men and women alike; first attested Alan Gemma 1198 P (Nth)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
- Spanish27%
Latin gemma, 'gem, precious stone'; originally 'bud, shoot' from the notion of a budding plant.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gemma 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PH Philippines | #179 | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 740 | — | Gemma | 118 |
| GB United Kingdom | #162 | ≈55,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | 4 | Gemma | 327 |
| ES Spain | #591 | 30,784 | 1 in 1.6K | 31K | Gemma | 157 |
| US United States | — | 19,024 | 1 in 17K | 19K | Gemma | 374 |
| TZ Tanzania | #530 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.4K | — | Jema | 16 |
| AU Australia | #257 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | 90 | Gemma | 239 |
| IE Ireland | #251 | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 3.7K | 13 | Gemma | 107 |
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: NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); 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)
Gemma is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
From a medieval Italian nickname meaning ‘gem’, ‘jewel’. It has been chosen in modern times mainly because of its transparent etymology. Among Roman Catholics it is sometimes chosen in honour of St Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), who was the subject of many extraordinary signs of grace, such as ecstasies and the appearance of the stigmata. Variant: Jemma.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
from the popular medieval female personal name Gemma (from gemma ‘gem’, ‘precious stone’).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
From a medieval Italian nickname meaning ‘jewel’. See main dictionary.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first 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)
- Gemma Frisiusb. 1508NLFrisian physician, mathematician and cartographer (1508–1555)
- Gemma Galganib. 1878ITItalian saint (1878-1903)
- Gemma Jonesb. 1942GBBritish actress
- Gemma Hayesb. 1977IEIrish singer-songwriter
- Gemma Whelanb. 1981GBEnglish actress (born 1981)
- Gemma Chanb. 1982GBBritish actress
- Gemma Atkinsonb. 1984GBBritish actress and model
- Gemma Artertonb. 1986GBBritish actress
- Gemma Wardb. 1987AUAustralian model and actress
- Gemma Spofforthb. 1987GBBritish swimmer, Olympic athlete, world champion, world record holder
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 97 sources across 46 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 31K | #140 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 31K | #246 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 19K | #1,651 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 1.8K | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 2010 | 90 | #80 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 2010 | 52 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 33 | #1,651 |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 13 | #324 |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name 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
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
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
- In which country does Gemma have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 147 thousand people named Gemma in the Philippines, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gemma.
- What are other forms of the name Gemma?
- In the etymology graph, Gema and Jemma are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Gemma a male or female name?
- Gemma is a female 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.
- Where does the name Gemma come from?
- Latin gemma, 'gem, precious stone'; originally 'bud, shoot' from the notion of a budding plant. Recorded by Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios.
- What does the name Gemma mean?
- In English, Italian for ‘gem’; used in Ireland for St Gemma Galgani (died 1903).
- How common is the name Gemma?
- In Spain, the national register counted 30,784 people named Gemma, about 1 in 1.6 thousand residents.
- How common is Gemma compared with other names?
- In the Philippines, Gemma is the 179th most common given name of 486,299 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gemma?
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/gemmaThe 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, “Gemma” — the 179th most common given name in Philippines. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.