Gage
Gage was given to 235 boys in 2025, #973 among boys’ names; 61,055 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 59,900 Americans named Gage and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 15 and 26.
Gage dropped 149 places in 2025, the #24 drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gage by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gage mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gage is “a male given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “measure” (guage) and “pledge” (gage).
An occupational surname from Middle English gage, guage (“measure”) for an assayer, or gage (“pledge”) for a moneylender.
/ɡeɪd͡ʒ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gage?
#973 among boys’ names, 2025
Gage fell from #242 in 2015 to #973 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.80 to 0.14 per 1,000.
2,950 babies in 2003, the peak
Gage peaked in 2003, when 2,950 babies were given it (2,939 boys, #136 among boys’ names). The 235 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 235 | #973 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 303 | #824 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 361 | #731 | 0.21 |
| 2022 | 430 | #641 | 0.25 |
| 2021 | 499 | #565 | 0.29 |
| 2020 | 629 | #475 | 0.36 |
| 2019 | 753 | #410 | 0.42 |
| 2018 | 845 | #381 | 0.47 |
| 2017 | 1,049 | #326 | 0.57 |
| 2016 | 1,303 | #279 | 0.69 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,541 | #242 | 0.80 |
| 2014 | 1,945 | #202 | 1.0 |
| 2013 | 2,156 | #188 | 1.1 |
| 2012 | 2,274 | #172 | 1.2 |
| 2011 | 2,508 | #154 | 1.3 |
| 2010 | 2,564 | #152 | 1.3 |
| 2009 | 2,886 | #141 | 1.5 |
| 2008 | 2,854 | #146 | 1.4 |
| 2007 | 2,741 | #149 | 1.3 |
| 2006 | 2,689 | #154 | 1.3 |
| 2005 | 2,702 | #151 | 1.4 |
| 2004 | 2,756 | #145 | 1.4 |
| 2003 | 2,939 | #136 | 1.5 |
| 2002 | 2,746 | #140 | 1.4 |
| 2001 | 2,759 | #144 | 1.4 |
| 2000 | 2,348 | #166 | 1.2 |
| 1999 | 1,955 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 1998 | 1,998 | #169 | 1.0 |
| 1997 | 1,702 | #193 | 0.90 |
| 1996 | 1,541 | #202 | 0.81 |
| 1995 | 1,499 | #203 | 0.79 |
| 1994 | 1,286 | #229 | 0.67 |
| 1993 | 991 | #283 | 0.51 |
| 1992 | 757 | #335 | 0.38 |
| 1991 | 809 | #319 | 0.40 |
| 1990 | 667 | #360 | 0.32 |
| 1989 | 171 | #752 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 57 | #1,376 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 52 | #1,406 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 52 | #1,369 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 63 | #1,184 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 42 | #1,490 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 11 | #3,705 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 18 | #2,629 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 17 | #2,707 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 15 | #2,999 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 20 | #2,409 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 23 | #2,094 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 21 | #2,230 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 29 | #1,760 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 20 | #2,238 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 23 | #1,945 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 20 | #2,071 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,136 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 6 | #4,591 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 8 | #3,618 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,107 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,855 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,074 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 9 | #2,967 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,202 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,183 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,056 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #3,264 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 7 | #3,169 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,462 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 5 | #3,760 | under 0.01 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,720 | under 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,732 | under 0.01 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,463 | under 0.01 |
| 1924 | 5 | #4,596 | under 0.01 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,465 | under 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,351 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,299 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,446 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Gage a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gage has been given almost only to boys: 246 girls in 75 years of records.
Girls and boys named Gage: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gage, and how old are they?
59,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 61,055 Americans ever recorded as Gage. The median Gage alive today is 20 years old; half are between 15 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 53,248 people named Gage (268 women and girls, 52,980 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 57,956 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 3 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 29 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 191 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7,770 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 39,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 12,000 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Gage born?
The states with the most babies named Gage are Texas, California and Ohio, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 29 | #884 | 0.8× |
| California | 21 | #1,021 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 14 | #657 | 1.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | #808 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 10 | #1,217 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 10 | #642 | 1.7× |
| Missouri | 10 | #573 | 1.7× |
| New York | 10 | #1,155 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #837 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 8 | #863 | 1.3× |
Where Gage is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gage is most over-represented in Kansas: since 1914 it was given 2.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Gage with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 70,486 babies since 1880, Gage is the most given (87% of them). In 2025 it was given to 235 of their 269 babies (87%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Gage
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Gage and names like it
- Compare Gage and GaugeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sGage peaked in 2003.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gage since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Gage: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2003The year the most babies were named Gage.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Gage alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with GMost given first.