Gil
Masculine
Gil is three letters with three separate histories behind it. In Spanish and Portuguese it is the old form of Giles, a name that came from Greek by way of a hermit saint in Provence. In Hebrew it is a word meaning joy. And in English it has long been the short form of Gilbert. A family generally knows which one it has.
How old is the name Gil?
Gil first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Gil alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 4,000 people named Gil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gil most popular?
Gil peaked in 1957, reaching #685 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 4,172 places below that high. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aegidius to Gil
The story of Gil
Aegidius was a hermit in Provence whose cult spread across medieval Europe and gave a great many languages a short name: Gilles in French, Giles in English, Egidio in Italian, Gil in Spanish and Portuguese. It became a common Iberian name in the Middle Ages and traveled to the Americas with Spanish and Portuguese settlement. Separately, modern Hebrew took the ordinary word gil, joy, and made a name of it in the twentieth century, and Israeli families have used it since. Both roads reach American records.
Meaningscholars disagree
kid goat or goatskin shield in Spanish; joy in Hebrew
Three roads. Spanish Gil comes from Latin Aegidius, itself from Greek aigidion, a young goat, or aigis, the goatskin shield of Athena. Hebrew gil is a plain word meaning joy or rejoicing, revived as a name in modern Israel. English Gil is a clipping of Gilbert, from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge. None is a corruption of the others.
How the name formed
- Aegidius
- Gilles
- Gil
Related forms: Gilles · Giles · Egidio · גיל · Gil
Pronouncing Gil
HEEL
Spanish says the g as an h: HEEL, one syllable. Hebrew and English both say a hard g, GILL. The three languages give the name two quite different sounds, and families use whichever is theirs.
Nicknames for Gil
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 1958115 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #685reached in 1957
- Change vs 2023
- −35.5%20 in 2025, from 31
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Gil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gilles in French — same name
- Giles in English — same name
- Egidio in Italian — same name
- גיל in Hebrew — transliteration
- Gil in Catalan — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Gils among us
people named Gil are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Gil
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Margarito test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gil's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Margarito climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Margarito's path sketches the road Gil is walking now.
Gil sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Gil beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gil in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters: it cannot be misspelled and fits any form ever printed.
- It is a complete name in Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and English at once.
- It works as a surname too, which suits families using both.
- The g is said two entirely different ways depending on the language, so the child may have two names.
- A very short name gives nothing to shorten and no formal register to move up to.
- English readers may hear it as a clipping and ask what the full name is.
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What they receive
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Gil
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,000 people named Gil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gil in 2025?
- Gil ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gil?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Gil — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gil with classmates?
- Gil will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gil
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Calogero#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gil and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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