Gerald is a masculine given name derived from the Germanic languages prefix ger- ("spear") and suffix -wald ("rule"). Gerald is a Norman French variant of the Germanic name. An Old English equivalent name was Garweald, the likely original name of Gerald of Mayo, a British Roman Catholic monk who established a monastery in Mayo, Ireland in 670. Nearly two centuries later, Gerald of Aurillac, a French count, took a vow of celibacy and later became known as the Roman Catholic patron saint of bachelors. The name was in regular use during the Middle Ages but declined after 1300 in England. It remai
Gerald is a masculine given name derived from the Germanic languages prefix ger- ("spear") and suffix -wald ("rule"). Gerald is a Norman French variant of the Germanic name. An Old English equivalent name was Garweald, the likely original name of Gerald of Mayo, a British Roman Catholic monk who established a monastery in Mayo, Ireland in 670. Nearly two centuries later, Gerald of Aurillac, a French count, took a vow of celibacy and later became known as the Roman Catholic patron saint of bachelors. The name was in regular use during the Middle Ages but declined after 1300 in England. It remained a common name in Ireland, where it was a common name among the powerful FitzGerald dynasty. The name was revived in the Anglosphere in the 19th century by writers of historical novels along with other names that had been popular in the medieval era. British novelist Ann Hatton published a novel called Gerald Fitzgerald in 1831. Author Dorothea Grubb published her novel Gerald Fitzgerald in 1845, and Irish author Charles Lever published his novel, also entitled Gerald Fitzgerald, in 1859. The name had strong associations with Ireland in English-speaking countries. In the United States, it increased in use for boys after 1910 and peaked in use in 1939, when it was the 19th most popular name given to American boys. Jerry is the usual short form of the name. Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and Irish language Gearalt. Gerald is less common as a surname. The name is also found in French as Gérald. Geraldine is the feminine equivalent.
==Given name== People with the name Gerald include: ===Politicians=== Gerald Boland (1885–1973), Ireland's longest-serving Minister for Justice Gerald Ford (1913–2006), 38th President of the United States Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner (1900–1990), Lord Chancellor from 1964 to 1970 Gerald Häfner (born 1956), German MEP Gerald Klug (born 1968), Austrian politician Gerald Nabarro (1913–1973), British Conservative politician Gerald S. McGowan (born 1946), US Ambassador to Portugal Gerald Van Woerkom (born 1947), American former member of the Michigan Legislature in both the House and Senate Gerald Willis (politician) (1940–2015), American businessman and politician Gerald "Boomer" Wright, American politician Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington (1885–1972), British diplomat, soldier, and architect Gerald Michael Gabbard (born 1948), also known as Mike Gabbard.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).