Gayl
Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Gayl has been given to 622 babies in the U.S. since 1917. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1952, with 43 recorded.
Babies named Gayl, 1975
1 in 503,000
Gayl over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Gayl?
Gayl had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1975, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 1975
- 1 in 503,000
- 6 of 3,019,126 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 243,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 1975
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 348,784 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Gayl sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 1975 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 348,784 children born in 1975 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gayl. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Gayls were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Gayl was born before 1952 — so the typical Gayl is around 73 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1950s
- 37.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 56.5%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 360
- People you could plausibly meet
1950s — 37.1% of all recorded uses (225).
Is Gayl rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 0%
- Peak was 1952 (43)
- Years since peak
- 73
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 34.3% average annual change
Spellings of Gayl
Gayl is not the most common spelling — Kayla is, with 24.0% against Gayl's 0.04%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Gayl is used
Across 1910–2025, Gayl was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,491,034 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1California1 in —
- 2Illinois1 in —
- 3Indiana1 in —
- 4New York1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Gayl has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Gayl around the world
Where Gayl ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- South Australia1950–1967#650in 1967
Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Gayl by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Gayl
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Gayl
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.