Gauge
Gauge was given to 26 boys in 2025, #4,072 among boys’ names; 4,821 Americans have been recorded with it since 1990 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,760 Americans named Gauge and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 12 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gauge by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gauge mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gauge is “a male given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gauge?
#4,072 among boys’ names, 2025
Gauge fell from #880 in 2015 to #4,072 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.13 to 0.02 per 1,000.
327 babies in 2009, the peak
Gauge peaked in 2009, when 327 boys were given it, #722 among boys’ names. The 26 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #4,072 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 30 | #3,723 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 58 | #2,368 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 47 | #2,762 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 74 | #2,007 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 88 | #1,753 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 93 | #1,702 | 0.05 |
| 2018 | 121 | #1,448 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 174 | #1,111 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 213 | #969 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 253 | #880 | 0.13 |
| 2014 | 280 | #812 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 319 | #731 | 0.17 |
| 2012 | 311 | #744 | 0.16 |
| 2011 | 298 | #759 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 297 | #757 | 0.15 |
| 2009 | 327 | #722 | 0.16 |
| 2008 | 312 | #734 | 0.15 |
| 2007 | 198 | #988 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 224 | #881 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 181 | #963 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 162 | #1,013 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 131 | #1,151 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 133 | #1,099 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 102 | #1,289 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 72 | #1,626 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 62 | #1,698 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 53 | #1,853 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 36 | #2,322 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 40 | #2,116 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 27 | #2,704 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 22 | #3,146 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 24 | #2,886 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 12 | #4,657 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #4,072 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,667 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Gauge a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gauge has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 36 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Gauge: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gauge, and how old are they?
4,760 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,821 Americans ever recorded as Gauge. The median Gauge alive today is 16 years old; half are between 12 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 3,909 people named Gauge (22 women and girls, 3,887 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,477 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 141 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,860 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,760 |
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 Gauge born?
The states with the most babies named Gauge are Texas, California and Ohio, with 30% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 411 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| California | 312 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 265 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Florida | 201 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 159 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 148 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Missouri | 144 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Indiana | 134 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Louisiana | 127 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Arizona | 125 | not ranked | 1.1× |
Where Gauge is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gauge is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1990 it was given 1.6 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 Gauge 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, Gauge is the second most given (6.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 26 of their 269 babies (9.7%), again the second 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 Gauge
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 Gauge and names like it
- Compare Gauge and GageBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sGauge peaked in 2009.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gauge since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Gauge.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Gauge alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with GMost given first.