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Gila

#10,371 in 2025Girls' name

Feminine form of Gil

Gila has been given to 640 babies in the U.S. since 1920. In 2025 it ranked #10,371 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1973, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Gila, 2025

1 in 368,000

Gila over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gila: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Gil

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gila means

Gila is a feminine form of Gil.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Gila → Gil → Gilbert. The family’s meaning is “pledge + bright, famous”, recorded in English with the source elements gīslaz and berhtaz.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gil.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 640 girls were recorded with the name Gila between 1920 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 16 in 1973; its best national rank was #3,537 in 1967.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,116 in 2020 to #10,371 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,142 in 2015 to #10,371 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 Gila?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 179,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#10,371
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
255,323 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gila sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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 255,323 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gila. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gilas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gila was born before 1993 — so the typical Gila is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
16.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
38.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
616
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 16.1% of all recorded uses (103).

Is Gila 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
+180
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,255
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,229
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.75×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
56.3%
Peak was 1973 (16)
Years since peak
52
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,537
1967

Spellings of Gila

Gila is not the most common spelling — Lisa is, with 17.7% against Gila's 0.01%.

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 Gila is used

Across 1910–2025, Gila was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 85,660 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 100,000

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. Gila has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gila around the world

Where Gila 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
    1996–2017
    #5,765
    in 2017

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Gila by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#10,371
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,255
Best rank ever
#3,537
1967
Peak year
1973
16 that year
First recorded
1920
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
640
Count in 2025
9

Names similar to Gila

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

SilaHilaKilaMeilaAnilaAkilaMailaDailaAvilaEilaZailaAmilaVilaCailaNeilaTailaTilaAlailaAmeilaAquilaNabilaGilmaZoilaKhaila

Sibling names for Gila

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 Gila

Top names of 1973, Gila's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1967Girls' names starting with G