Gilda
Feminine · “sacrifice”
Gilda is the daughter in Rigoletto — the one whose father is the court jester, whose story ends the way Verdi's stories end, and who has one of the most sung arias in Italian opera. The name existed before the opera and is a clipping of something much longer, but the opera is why anyone outside Italy has heard it.
How old is the name Gilda?
Gilda first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Gilda alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 5,100 people named Gilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gilda most popular?
Gilda peaked in 1927, reaching #381 nationally. See the whole 1927 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ermenegilda to Gilda
The story of Gilda
Germanic names arrived in Italy with the Lombard invasions and stayed, which is why a language descended from Latin carries so many of them — Aldo, Elda, Ermanno, Gilda. Ermenegilda was one, borne by a Visigothic prince turned saint, and Italian shortened it as Italian shortens everything, from the front. Verdi then gave the name to the heroine of Rigoletto in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it traveled wherever the opera did, which was everywhere. American use follows Italian emigration and, in a smaller way, the opera house.
Meaningscholars disagree
sacrifice; value
Gilda is generally taken as a short form of Ermenegilda, a Germanic compound whose second element is gild — a word covering sacrifice, tribute and worth, and the ancestor of the English gild and guild. The first element is the ermen that also stands behind Emma. That reading is standard and not firmly demonstrated. An alternative treats Gilda as an independent Italian name of unclear origin. Either way the elements are Germanic and reached Italy with the Lombards.
How the name formed
- Ermenegilda
- Gilda
Related forms: Ermenegilda · Hermenegilda · Gilda
Pronouncing Gilda
GIL-duh
GIL-duh, two syllables, stress at the front, the g hard as in gift. Italian says it the same way. A reader who takes the g as soft produces JIL-duh, which is not how the name is said in any language that uses it.
Nicknames for Gilda
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 1947346 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #381reached in 1927
- Change vs 2022
- +11.1%10 in 2024, from 9
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.
Gilda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ermenegilda in Italian — related form
- Hermenegilda in Spanish — related form
- Gilda in Portuguese — same name
Gildas among us
people named Gilda 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
Gilda 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
- Two syllables, five letters, and no ambiguity once the hard g is established.
- It has a documented Germanic derivation and a famous operatic bearer.
- Gil and Gigi are both usable short forms in two different registers.
- The g gets read as soft by first-time readers, and that correction has to be made out loud.
- Hilda, Golda and Gilda are close enough to be substituted, and Hilda especially.
- The name belongs audibly to an earlier American period and to Italian-American families in particular.
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Gilda
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Gildas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,100 people named Gilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gilda in 2025?
- Gilda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Gilda with classmates?
- Gilda 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 Gilda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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