The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Gehrig!

Comments and insights on the name Gehrig: | Edit

My son is also named Gehrig, and yes people tend to spell it wrong and pronounce it wrong BUT, we love the name and it suits him I could not imagine him being called anything else than Gehrig! :)

Personal experiences with the name Gehrig: | Edit

My son's name is Gehrig - many people LOVE it when they hear it. Others spell it wrong (Gherig) which I'm sure he'll experience his entire life and others think we're saying Derek, Garret or Garreck. We love it thought!

Our son's name is Gehrig too. People sometimes think we are saying Garret or Gary, his sister, she's 3 says Gehrid. We also have the same misspelling situation. But that being said we love the uniqueness and I feel it's a strong name.

Nicknames for Gehrig: | Edit

Rigs, Riggy, Riggles

Meanings and history of the name Gehrig: | Edit

Popularly called "The Iron Horse" for his durability, Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams (23).

Gehrig was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. In 1969 he was voted the greatest first baseman of all time by the Baseball Writers' Association, and was the leading vote-getter on the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, chosen by fans in 1999.

A native of New York City, he played for the New York Yankees until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now commonly known in the United States and Canada as Lou Gehrig's disease.Over a 15-season span from 1925 through 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games, the streak ending only when Gehrig became disabled by the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long considered one of baseball's few unbreakable records, stood for 56 years, until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles on September 6, 1995.

Other notes:

Scored game-winning run in 8 World Series games

First athlete ever to appear on a box of Wheaties

First baseball player to have his uniform number retired July 4, 1939, farewell speech was voted by fans as the fifth-greatest moment in Major League Baseball history in 2002

A Lou Gehrig 25-cent postage stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service on the 50th anniversary of his retirement from baseball, depicting him both in profile and at bat

Famous real-life people named Gehrig: | Edit

Lou Gehrig, Hall of Fame baseball player. Played first base for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s

Gehrig in song, story & screen: | Edit

Lou Gehrig starred in the 1938 20th Century Fox movie Rawhide playing himself in his only feature film appearance.

In 1942, the life of Lou Gehrig was portrayed in the movie The Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper as Gehrig and Teresa Wright as his wife Eleanor. It received 11 Academy Award nominations and won in one category, Film Editing. Real-life Yankees Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey (then still an active player) played themselves, as did sportscaster Bill Stern.

Later, in 1978, a TV movie, A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story was released, starring Blythe Danner and Edward Herrmann as Eleanor and Lou Gehrig, respectively. It was based on the 1976 autobiography My Luke and I, written by Eleanor Gehrig and Joseph Durso.