Name Awesome

Gil

#4,916 in 2025Boys' name

Pledge + bright, famous, through Gilbert

Gil has been given to 4,971 babies in the U.S. since 1914. In 2025 it ranked #4,916 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1957, with 124 recorded.

Babies named Gil, 2025

1 in 166,000

Gil over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gil: meaning, origin, and history

Pledge + bright, famous, through Gilbert

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gil means

Gil belongs to the name family reached through Gil → Gilbert. Its meaning is “pledge + bright, famous”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gil is used in English, Basque, Catalan and Cebuano.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gilbert and Giles.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Gil is pronounced /ɡɪl/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,971 boys were recorded with the name Gil between 1914 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 124 in 1957; its best national rank was #685 in 1957.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,314 in 2020 to #4,916 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,461 in 2015 to #4,916 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Gil?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 166,000
20 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 85,400
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,916
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
114,896 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gil sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 114,896 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gil. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gils were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gil was born before 1969 — so the typical Gil is around 56 today.

Median birth year
1969
About 56 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
18.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
17.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
4,277
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 18.4% of all recorded uses (915).

Is Gil 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
−903
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−602
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,455
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.63×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
16.1%
Peak was 1957 (124)
Years since peak
68
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#685
1957

Where Gil is used

Across 1910–2025, Gil was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 16,667 boys, against 1 in 42,328 across all states with data. It was least common in Utah (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 16,667
  2. 2New York1 in 20,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 25,000
  4. 4Illinois1 in 100,000
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 100,000
  6. 6Michigan1 in 100,000
  7. 7New Jersey1 in 100,000
  8. 8New Mexico1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Gil has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gil around the world

Where Gil 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2011–2011
    #648
    in 2011
  • France
    1910–2022
    #5,637
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1994–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1960–2002
    #606
    in 2002

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Gil

People whose public names include Gil, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Gil in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Gil. Linked forms have their own page here.

JilGillGilesGylesEgidioGillesGilsonGilbertGilsJiljíEgidiusAegidius

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Gil by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,916
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 602
Best rank ever
#685
1957
Peak year
1957
124 that year
First recorded
1914
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,971
Count in 2025
20

Names similar to Gil

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

GilesGillVergilGilmerGilmanGildardoGillisGiladGilbertoGilfordGildoGillesGilmoreVirgilGilbertGillieGillermoGilmarGileadGilliamNigilGilsonArgilGillian

Names with a curve like Gil

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Gil, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

RitchieCarnellDonellDanialDaveyMichelDannielStevanCornellRanceKerwinRandell

Sibling names for Gil

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Gil

Top names of 1957, Gil's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1957Boys' names starting with GBasque Boy Names