Meaning and history
Gary comes from an English surname derived from a Norman short form of Germanic names beginning with ger, meaning "spear." Actor Gary Cooper (1901–1961), whose stage name came from Gary, Indiana, helped popularize it in the late 1920s. The name peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, entering the American top ten in 1950, before declining.
20062006: 870 births, rank #349
2007: 779 births, rank #388
2008: 679 births, rank #427
2009: 611 births, rank #452
2010: 547 births, rank #475
20112011: 527 births, rank #495
2012: 492 births, rank #530
2013: 446 births, rank #578
2014: 493 births, rank #561
2015: 479 births, rank #581
20162016: 444 births, rank #606
2017: 407 births, rank #637
2018: 374 births, rank #671
2019: 303 births, rank #774
2020: 288 births, rank #806
20212021: 253 births, rank #907
2022: 237 births, rank #956
2023: 203 births, rank #1,066
2024: 187 births, rank #1,133
20252025: 201 births, rank #1,073
Gary moved from #908 to #956 for boys between 2021 and 2022. Its highest annual birth count came in 1952, with 38,754 births.