Gordon
Meaning
from a Scottish place name and clan surname, traditionally 'spacious fort'
Goes by Gordy
Famously borne by Gordon Parks, the first Black staff photographer at Life magazine.
The story
Gordon started as a place, not a person: a spot in the Scottish Borders whose old Brythonic name is usually read as "spacious fort", and which lent its name to one of Scotland's great clans. For centuries it stayed a surname, and it grew common as a first name only after Victorian Britain found its hero: when General Charles George Gordon fell at Khartoum in 1885, families across the English-speaking world began putting the surname on birth certificates. In America the wave crested in the 1920s. And in Hong Kong the name has a prominent modern bearer: Gordon Lam Ka-tung, named best actor at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards after thirty years of quiet supporting roles.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Gordon peaked in the 1920s and the 1950s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
36 people · the #83,466 first name in Brazil · median age 52
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Gordon
People given the name Gordon 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 Gordon deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Gordon 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 Gordon fits with your family’s names and surname.
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