Gilbert
Feminine · “bright pledge”
Gilbert is given to boys far more often — 130,148 boys against 673 girls since 1880. See Gilbert as a boy name
Gilbert arrived with the Normans and has been in continuous English use ever since, which very few names from that wave managed. The Englishman who carried it in the twelfth century founded the only monastic order England ever produced, and it was destroyed completely.
How old is the name Gilbert?
Gilbert first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Gilbert alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 400 people named Gilbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gilbert most popular?
Gilbert peaked in 1904, reaching #1486 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gislebert to Gilbert
The story of Gilbert
Every other monastic order in medieval England was imported — Benedictines, Cistercians, Franciscans, all founded abroad. One was not. Gilbert of Sempringham, a Lincolnshire parish priest, began by building a cloister against his church wall for seven local women who wanted a religious life, and what grew from it became an order of double houses: nuns and canons in the same establishment, separated by a wall, with a turning hatch for passing things through and strict rules about who could see whom. At its height it had over twenty houses and something like fifteen hundred members. It existed only in England, it was suppressed entirely at the Dissolution, and unlike the international orders it had nowhere to survive. Nothing of it continued anywhere.
Meaning
bright pledge
A Germanic compound joining a word for a hostage or pledge to one meaning bright or famous. It came into England through Normandy and stayed, becoming an ordinary English name rather than a foreign one within a couple of generations.
How the name formed
- Gislebert
- Gilbert
Related forms: Gilbert · Gilberto · Gilberto · Giselbert
Pronouncing Gilbert
GIL-burt
Two syllables with the stress at the front and a hard g. Spanish and Portuguese say the g as a throat sound, which makes the same spelling a noticeably different name.
Nicknames for Gilbert
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 192314 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1486reached in 1904
- Change vs 1990
- +20.0%6 in 1991, from 5
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.
Gilbert in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Gilbert in French — same name
- Gilberto in Spanish — same name
- Gilberto in Italian — same name
- Giselbert in German — same name
Gilberts among us
people named Gilbert are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Gilbert sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Gil and Bert both detach and sound nothing like each other.
- The meaning is documented all the way back and has not shifted.
- It works in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese without being rebuilt.
- English and Spanish say the initial letter completely differently.
- It reads as distinctly old-fashioned in English, though it is common in Spanish-speaking families.
- It is recorded for daughters too, though very rarely.
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Gilbert
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Gilberts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Gilbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gilbert in 2025?
- Gilbert is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Gilbert with classmates?
- Gilbert will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
Grace#38 · Gloria#654 · Gladys#3211 · Geraldine#2438 · Gail#8362 · Gertrude#6546 · Georgia#99 · Gina#2076
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gilbert? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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