The GERARD surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	8,646	3767	0.003	32
United States (1880 census)	2,031	2948	0.004	41
Change since 1880	+6615	-819	-0.001	-9
Other Countries
Australia	260	5933	0.002	16
United Kingdom	563	8155	0.001	12

Top States for GERARD by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
California	771	3802	0.002	23
New York	734	2526	0.004	39
Florida	713	2823	0.004	45
Michigan	574	1913	0.006	58
Illinois	464	2726	0.004	37
Top States for GERARD by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Maine	105	2102	0.008	82
Iowa	190	1913	0.006	65
Louisiana	282	2125	0.006	63
Minnesota	302	1906	0.006	61
Michigan	574	1913	0.006	58

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called GERARD live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called GERARD represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called GERARD in California than any other state, but you are more likely to find a GERARD by picking someone at random in Maine than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of GERARD

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From given name or forename

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the GERARD surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the GERARD surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of GERARD in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	598	6.92
White (Hispanic)	210	2.43
Mixed Race	173	2
Asian/Pacific	71	0.82
Native American/Alaskan	39	0.45
White (Caucasian)	7,555	87.38

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the GERARD surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of GERARD in historical publications

(origin: Teut.) From Gar, all, and ard, nature; apt, docile; one ready to do or learn, amiable.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

GERARD. A Norman personal name, probably identical with Gerald. In the H.R. it is written Fil' Gerardi. The baronet's family derive their origin from the same ancestor as the Dukes of Leiuster and many other noble houses, viz., from Other, Castellan of AViudsor, temp. Edw. Confessor, whose grandson Gerard, or Gerald, had a son William Fitz-Gerard, who founded the Cheshire and Lancashire Gerards. The family have possessed Bryu, in the latter county, uuiuterruptedly from temp. Edw. III. Courthope's Debrett.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to GERARD

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GERARD.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.