Gladys comes from the English / Welsh tradition, meaning Woman of The Land.
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How popular is Gladys?
1920peak year
Today, Gladys is rarely chosen — ranked well outside the top 1,000 (around #2739), with only about 65 babies given the name per year. But it wasn't always this way. At its peak in 1920, 8,819 babies were given the name (ranked #22 nationally). Its strongest stretch was the 1920s. Gladys's usage has held roughly steady recently. In all, around 267,689 babies have been registered as Gladys since 1880.
Year-by-year registrations1880–2024 · U.S. Social Security data
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