Gill
Masculine · “Bright pledge”
Gill is given to both — 1,218 boys and 56 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
English has three words spelled gill and they are not said the same way. The breathing organ of a fish has a hard g; the old measure of a quarter pint has a soft one and is said like jill; and the name has been said both ways depending on whether it came from Gilbert or from Julian.
How old is the name Gill?
Gill first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Gill alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 800 people named Gill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gill most popular?
Gill peaked in 1884, reaching #971 nationally. See the whole 1884 chart.
Where it comes from
From Gilbert to Gill
The story of Gill
Before it was a rhyme, jack and jill were simply the words for a lad and a lass. Sixteenth-century writers use them that way, as generic labels for an ordinary young man and an ordinary young woman, and the proverb that all shall be well and jack shall have jill means only that everybody will be paired off. The names were common enough to stop being names. Jack was also the word for a great many devices that stood in for a man, which is why a car has one and a deck of cards has one and a boot is pulled off with one; the sense of a substitute or a small helper runs all the way through. The nursery rhyme is late and uses the pair because the pair was already proverbial.
Meaningscholars disagree
Bright pledge, or youthful
A hard-g Gill is usually short for Gilbert, a Germanic name joining a word for a pledge to one meaning bright. A soft-g Gill is usually from Gillian, itself from Julian, whose Roman family name may mean youthful and may mean nothing recoverable. The spelling does not distinguish them and neither does the record.
How the name formed
- Gilbert
- Gill
Pronouncing Gill
GIL
One syllable with a hard g in most American families. The soft-g reading, said as jill, is the older English one for the woman's name and survives in Britain, so the same four letters name two different people.
Nicknames for Gill
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 195941 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #971reached in 1884
- Change vs 2004
- 0.0%5 in 2006, 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.
Gills among us
people named Gill 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
Gill 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
- One syllable, four letters, and nothing silent or ambiguous once the g is settled.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Short names age well and need no shortening later.
- The g has two live readings and the spelling chooses neither, so the name must be introduced.
- The record carries it for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- It collides with an ordinary English word that children learn early in biology.
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What they receive
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Gill
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Gills are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Gill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Gill in 2025?
- Gill is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Gill with classmates?
- Gill will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
George#126 · Gary#1073 · Gregory#593 · Gerald#1204 · Gabriel#37 · Glenn#1443 · Gavin#303 · Gordon#1051
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gill? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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