MEANING & HISTORY
What does George mean?
George derives from Greek Georgios, based on georgos, a farmer or earthworker. The noun joins ge, earth, and ergon, work.
This gives a concrete meaning connected with cultivating land rather than an abstract promise of strength or nobility. The name developed into forms such as Jorge, Giorgio and Georg as it moved through different languages. Its cultural history includes Saint George and the stories later told about him, but the agricultural meaning comes from the Greek vocabulary itself, not from the dragon legend.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
CebuanoEtymology & source
English George.
a male given name from English
Wiktionary: George (Cebuano) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
Name of an early saint, from Middle English George, from Latin Geōrgius, from Ancient Greek Γεώργῐος (Geṓrgĭos), from γεωργός (geōrgós, “farmer, earth worker”), from γῆ (gê, “earth”) (combining form γεω- (geō-)) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”) Doublet of Jorge and Geevarghese. The aircraft autopilot sense is probably from George DeBeeson, who patented an early (1931) autopilot system, and/or a reference to the expression let George do it. The Pullman porter sense derives from George Pullman, who hired Black people to staff his sleeping cars, and the patrons of the service seeing the Black people as servants of George Porter, much like how a slave was named after the master.
A male given name from Ancient Greek.; A diminutive of the female given names Georgina and Georgia; also used in the conjoined name George Ann(e).
Wiktionary: George (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name George
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
George Canseco
Filipino composer
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
George Elias
Filipino politician
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
43
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
8
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: George Canseco, George Elias
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
George in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to George
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Jorge♂Farmer; earthworker
- Serge♂French Sergius form; Cebuano account links Sergio
- Gene♂♀Short form of Eugene, Eugenia or Genevieve
- Geoff♂Short form of Geoffrey
- Georgette♀Farmer; feminine form in the George family
- Georgina♀Farmer; feminine form of George
- Gerda♀Germanic familiar form, or Norse enclosure-name
- Gerry♂♀Familiar form of Gerald, Gerard, or Geraldine
What rhymes with George?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Names with a similar written ending
Spelling suggestions; these are not verified phonetic rhymes.
Recorded combinations with George
1 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore George further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q15921732 — George (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — George Canseco (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q15921732 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — George Elias (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q15921732 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — George (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — George (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — George (opens in a new tab)
Onomastic account consulted for this exact name or its explicitly linked name family.