Gertrude
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Germanic ‘spear strength’; used in Ireland to anglicise Grania
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ɡɝtɹud/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gertrude is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Jamaica it is the 55th most common given name.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 2.7K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 5.6K
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 6.7K
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.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 335 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.7K (inferred from the name graph)
20,978 people, 2020
Highest-authority source
Jamaica, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Germanic ‘spear strength’; used in Ireland to anglicise Grania.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gertrude 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #613 | 20,978 | 1 in 16K | 21K | Gertrude | 335 |
| GB United Kingdom | #640 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.6K | listed | Gertrude | 111 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈8,600 est. | ≈1 in 25K | — | Gertrude | 41 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈8,500 est. | ≈1 in 6.7K | — | Gertrude | 36 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈8,100 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Gertrude | 6 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 4,705 | 1 in 3.7K | 4.6K | Gertrude | 40 |
| JM Jamaica | #55 | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.7K | — | Gertrude | 4 |
| SK Slovakia | — | ≈990 est. | ≈1 in 5.5K | — | Gertrude | 3 |
20,978 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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; the gb-nisra-baby-names-ni register; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). 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)
Gertrude 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, from Germanic elements meaning 'spear' + 'strength'
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, A female given name from the Germanic languages.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, Du germanique ger « lance » et trut « force »; sainte Gertrude, invoquée pour la gorge et les suffocations.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In French, Du germanique *ger* « lance » + *trud* « force ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, Origine germanique, signifie « lance fidèle ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
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)
- Gertrude of Nivellesb. 626BEBenedictine abbess and saint (626-659)
- Gertrude of Saxonyb. 1030DECountess of Holland and Countess of Flanders (1030–1113)
- Gertrude Jekyllb. 1843GBGarden designer, artist, editor (1843-1932)
- Gertrude Bellb. 1868GBBritish traveller, writer, mountaineer, politician, archaeologist and spy (1868–1926)
- Gertrude Steinb. 1874USAmerican author (1874–1946)
- Ma Raineyb. 1886USnot in their usual nameAmerican blues singer (1886–1939)
- Gertrude Lawrenceb. 1898GBEnglish actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer (1898–1952)
- Gertrude Bergb. 1899USAmerican actress, screenwriter (1899-1966)
- Gertrude Elionb. 1918USAmerican biochemist and pharmacologist (1918–1999)
- Elizabeth Anscombeb. 1919GBnot in their usual nameBritish analytic philosopher
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 69 sources across 43 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 21K | #1,555 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 4.6K | #453 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 1.3K | #1,806 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 152 | #3,398 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 37 | #1,555 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 17 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1949 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2016 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name 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 Gertrude mean, and where does it come from?
- Germanic ‘spear strength’; used in Ireland to anglicise Grania. Recorded by Irish first names.
- Is Gertrude a male or female name?
- Gertrude 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.
- In which country does Gertrude have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 21 thousand people named Gertrude, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled gertrude.
- What are other forms of the name Gertrude?
- In the etymology graph, Gertrud, Gertrudis and Gertrudes are forms of the same name in other languages; Trudy, Trudi and Trudie are recorded short or pet forms.
- How common is the name Gertrude?
- In the United States, the national register counted 20,978 people named Gertrude in 2020, about 1 in 16 thousand residents.
- How common is Gertrude compared with other names?
- In the United States, Gertrude is the 613th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Gertrude?
- A machine transcription gives /ɡɝtɹud/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Gertrude?
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/gertrudeThe 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, “Gertrude” — the 613th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.