George
Meaning
farmer
Goes by Geordie, Georgie, Gigi
Famously borne by George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist who developed hundreds of uses for the peanut and other crops. Famously borne by George Eliot, the name Mary Ann Evans built from her partner George Lewes and a surname she called mouth-filling.
The story
George comes from the Greek georgos, a farmer, one who works the earth, and it rode into English fame on the legend of Saint George and the dragon. Kings wore it for centuries, in England and beyond, and America made it a founding name the moment George Washington took command. In the records it reads as one of the great constants: a fixture near the top of American lists for generations, never trendy and never gone, the kind of name that outlasts every fashion around it. Its long slow drift through the later twentieth century has lately shown signs of turning, and it is hard not to notice the small lift that followed the 2013 birth of Britain's Prince George. Solid, plain in the best sense, and older than the language it now lives in, George simply endures.
George around the world
One shared root links 8 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Greek Georgios "farmer, earth-worker", the dragon-slayer's name
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. George peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
33,827 people · the #755 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 5,988 · median age 37
Among people named George living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 760 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet George
People given the name George in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The George deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where George truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how George fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where George travels
Arab American · farmer (an extremely common name among Arab Christian families, especially Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian communities)
Keep exploring
Names like George · Nicknames for George · Greek baby names · Arab American baby names · British and London baby names
Does George fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add George to your family’s tree →