Gisel
Feminine · “pledge”
Giselle means hostage, and it is not a metaphor. Frankish treaties were guaranteed by handing over children, and a noble family that gave a daughter as surety for a peace gave her the name of what she was: a pledge.
How old is the name Gisel?
Gisel first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Gisel alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 2,300 people named Gisel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Gisel most popular?
Gisel peaked in 1999, reaching #1502 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,044 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gisil to Gisel
The story of Gisel
Gisela was a Carolingian name: Charlemagne had a sister of the name and a daughter, and a Gisela of West Francia is recorded as married to Rollo, the Viking leader who became the first ruler of Normandy, as part of exactly the kind of settlement the word describes. The name spread through France and Germany and gained a second life through the ballet Giselle, first performed in Paris in 1841, which is why the French spelling dominates outside German-speaking countries. Gisel without the final e is a Spanish-language shortening, and its best year in United States records is 1999, in the middle of a strong Mexican-American run for the whole family.
Meaning
pledge, hostage
From the Germanic element gisil, a pledge or hostage, which appears in a range of Frankish and Germanic names. The practice behind the word was ordinary: hostages were exchanged to guarantee agreements and were expected to be treated as guests, so the word does not carry the sense of captivity that the English one does. The final e of Gisele and Giselle is dropped in this spelling.
How the name formed
- gisil
- Gisela
- Giselle
- Gisel
Related forms: Giselle · Gisela · Gisela · Gisele · Gizella
Pronouncing Gisel
hee-SEL
Two syllables with the stress at the end in Spanish, where the g before an i is an h sound. French says zhee-ZEL and English jih-ZEL; all three are used for this spelling in the United States.
Nicknames for Gisel
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 1999114 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1502reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −29.2%17 in 2025, from 24
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.
Gisel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Giselle in French — same name
- Gisela in German — same name
- Gisela in Spanish — same name
- Gisele in Portuguese — same name
- Gizella in Hungarian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Gisels among us
people named Gisel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Gisel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Gisel
- #6546
- Gisel on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Gisel went to 17 girls in 2025, but Gisell is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,619 places above the chart.
- Gisel17
- Gisell16
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Gisel itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dorsey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Gisel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dorsey climbed just as high around 1931, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dorsey's path sketches the road Gisel is walking now.
Gisel 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
Gisel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Gisel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Germanic meaning with a genuinely interesting history behind it.
- Carolingian royalty and a famous ballet both attached to the name.
- Gigi is a ready and independently fashionable short form.
- Three languages give the initial three different sounds.
- Gisele, Giselle and Gisela are all more common spellings.
- The meaning is a hostage, which needs explaining to be heard well.
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What they receive
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Gisel
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gisels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Gisel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Gisel?
- Gisel is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Gisell.
- How popular is the name Gisel in 2025?
- Gisel ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Gisel?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Gisel — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Gisel with classmates?
- Gisel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Gisel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Gisel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Gisel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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