Given name & surname
Gunner
“a bold warrior”
In Danish use, Gunner has a related form in Gunnar. One Scandinavian interpretation is “a bold warrior.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
In Danish use, Gunner has a related form in Gunnar. One Scandinavian interpretation is “a bold warrior.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Gunner is a form of Gunnar. Gunnar comes from Old Norse, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1970. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Gunner through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 23,508
- 23,486 boys · 22 girls
- Most popular year
- 2015
- 1,597 babies
- 2025
- 597
- #506 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −41%
- Cooling
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 597 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 506 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 40.9% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 1,591 in 2015. In 2025, Texas had the largest reported state-level birth count for boys with this name (67). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 17,163 as a first name in 2020; 789 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Gunner’s family of names
In Danish usage, Gunner has a related form in Gunnar. In Danish usage, Gunner has a conventional equivalent in the German form Günther.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 5
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Gunner
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
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