Gerard
From a Germanic root meaning "brave with the spear". Always a men's name in Poland and never crowded: it sits outside the top 300, and the handful of boys given it each year keeps shrinking, so meeting one stays memorable.
Gerard Pronunciation
Gerard is pronounced GE-rahrt (/ˈgɛrart/).
What Gerard means
Where Gerard comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gerard grew from Germanic roots. It joins ger, meaning spear, to a second element that speaks of courage and strength. Read straight through, the name means brave with the spear, or in Polish silny, odważny oszczepnik.
For the people who first bore it, the spear was a literal object, an everyday tool of defence. A later Gerard put the weapon down. Gerard of Cremona, working in twelfth-century Toledo, translated Arabic and Greek learning into Latin, among them Ptolemy's Almagest. His spear turned out to be a pen.
The name also has a feminine form, Gerarda, the same courage handed to a daughter. Read a Polish class register and a Gerard still turns up, sometimes shortened by friends before the teacher finishes the roll. The old meaning holds under the modern spelling: brave with the spear.
When Gerard celebrates name day
Gerard appears 14 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 3 September.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
-
in 142 days30 JanuarySaturday in 2027
-
in 155 days12 FebruaryFriday in 2027
-
in 160 days17 FebruaryWednesday in 2027
-
in 175 days4 MarchThursday in 2027
-
in 225 days23 AprilFriday in 2027
-
in 245 days13 MayThursday in 2027
-
in 269 days6 JuneSunday in 2027
-
in 276 days13 JuneSunday in 2027
-
in 36 days16 OctoberFriday in 2026
-
in 50 days30 OctoberFriday in 2026
-
in 110 days29 DecemberTuesday in 2026
How many people are named Gerard
1 in 2258 men in Poland is named Gerard. 9,454 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #371 among male names.
Gerard's popularity over time
10 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #694 among newborns. It is making a comeback after a low in 2018. Still the #371 name among living men, even as it slips to #694 among newborns.
Where Gerard is most popular
Gerard is most popular in Podlaskie, 150% above the national average (7 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Pomeranian (+123%) and Greater Poland (+96%). It is least common in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and West Pomeranian, 57% and 44% below average respectively.
-
Podlaskie7 boys born+150%
-
Pomeranian14 boys born+123%
-
Greater Poland18 boys born+96%
-
Świętokrzyskie4 boys born+69%
-
Lesser Poland13 boys born+35%
-
Silesian13 boys born+34%
-
Masovian12 boys born−20%
-
Subcarpathian4 boys born−22%
-
Lublin3 boys born−31%
-
West Pomeranian2 boys born−44%
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian2 boys born−57%
Gerard as a middle name
Gerard is a first name for 9,454 men in Poland and a middle name for another 7,771, a 55/45 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 114th, between Joachim (7,841) and Oliwier (7,708).
-
#112 Marcel7,842
-
#113 Joachim7,841
-
#114 Gerard7,771
-
#115 Oliwier7,708
-
#116 Albert7,574