Gustavus
Gustavus was last recorded in 2006, when 5 babies were given it; 266 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 2006 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gustavus by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gustavus mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gustavus is “a male given name from the Germanic languages, a Latinized form of Gustav.”
Borrowed from Latin Gustavus. From Swedish Gustav.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gustavus?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #12,698, in 2006; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
10 babies in 1966, the peak
Gustavus peaked in 1966, when 10 boys were given it, #2,691 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 5 | #12,698 | 2.4 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,168 | 2.6 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,316 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 5 | #7,691 | 2.6 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,141 | 3.9 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,331 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 10 | #3,297 | 6.4 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,761 | 4.9 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,368 | 4.8 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,727 | 3.9 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 8 | #3,207 | 4.6 |
| 1967 | 8 | #3,084 | 4.6 |
| 1966 | 10 | #2,691 | 5.6 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,405 | 3.5 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,790 | 3.0 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,298 | 2.4 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,266 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,225 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 7 | #3,381 | 3.3 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,693 | 2.8 |
| 1955 | 6 | #3,659 | 2.9 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,464 | 3.4 |
| 1947 | 6 | #3,505 | 3.3 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,261 | 5.2 |
| 1938 | 5 | #3,733 | 4.5 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,417 | 6.4 |
| 1927 | 8 | #3,270 | 7.1 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,494 | 4.6 |
| 1922 | 7 | #3,664 | 6.4 |
| 1918 | 9 | #2,967 | 8.9 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,045 | 8.6 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,708 | 10.6 |
| 1914 | 7 | #2,762 | 10.7 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,359 | 13.7 |
| 1911 | 6 | #1,622 | 26.6 |
| 1890 | 5 | #1,065 | 45.0 |
| 1884 | 5 | #1,042 | 43.7 |
| 1882 | 8 | #725 | 70.4 |
| 1881 | 5 | #927 | 49.6 |
| 1880 | 5 | #968 | 45.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Gustavus a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gustavus has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 40 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Gustavus: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gustavus, and how old are they?
An estimated 129 Americans named Gustavus and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (49% of everyone recorded); the median is 58 years old and half are between 52 and 65. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 245 people named Gustavus (1 woman or girl, 244 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 140 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 9,963 babies since 1880, Gustavus is the third most given (2.7% of them). In 2025 none of their 40 babies recorded by SSA was a Gustavus (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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.
More about Gustavus and names like it
- Compare Gustavus and GustaveBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sGustavus peaked in 1966.
- The top names of 1966The year the most babies were named Gustavus.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Gustavus alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with GMost given first.