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Gilda

Girls' name

Payment, tribute, compensation

Gilda has been given to 10,078 babies in the U.S. since 1898. 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 1947, with 346 recorded.

Babies named Gilda, 2024

1 in 334,000

Gilda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gilda: meaning, origin, and history

Payment, tribute, compensation

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gilda means

Gilda means “payment, tribute, compensation”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Gilda is used in Italian and Portuguese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈd͡ʒil.da/, /ˈʒiɫ.dɐ/ and /ˈʒiw.dɐ/ for Gilda.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Gilda → Ermenegilda. The family’s meaning is “gift from God,”, recorded in Italian.

Origin, language, and formation

Gilda is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ermenegilda.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,078 girls were recorded with the name Gilda between 1898 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 346 in 1947; its best national rank was #381 in 1927.

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 Gilda?

Gilda had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 334,000
10 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 162,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
231,706 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gilda 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 2024 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 231,706 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gilda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gildas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gilda was born before 1947 — so the typical Gilda is around 78 today.

Median birth year
1947
About 78 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
21.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
4,175
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 21.4% of all recorded uses (2,160).

Is Gilda 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 1947 (346)
Years since peak
78
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#381
1927

Spellings of Gilda

Gilda is not the most common spelling — Linda is, with 58.2% against Gilda's 0.40%.

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 Gilda is used

Across 1910–2025, Gilda was most concentrated in Rhode Island — about 1 in 3,448 girls, against 1 in 18,280 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

029 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Rhode Island1 in 3,448
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 6,250
  3. 3New York1 in 6,250
  4. 4Massachusetts1 in 8,333
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 11,111
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 11,111
  7. 7Texas1 in 16,667
  8. 8California1 in 20,000

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

Gilda around the world

Where Gilda 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
    2011–2019
    #5,591
    in 2019
  • Ireland
    1971–1971
    #466
    in 1971
  • France
    1900–2025
    #5,526
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1948–1983
    #686
    in 1983

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

Notable people named Gilda

People whose public names include Gilda, 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.

Gilda in other languages

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

GlendaGildásia

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

Gilda by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#381
1927
Peak year
1947
346 that year
First recorded
1898
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
10,078
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gilda

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

GoldaZeldaNeldaGillianEldaImeldaWildaVeldaTildaHuldaHildaGilaGriseldaNildaMathildaAldaMatildaValdaMeldaMildaAwildaGilmaIldaEmelda

Names with a curve like Gilda

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

CelestineLavernFreidaDelphineDorethaAlfredaRethaMariettaIleneRetaNorineMelva

Sibling names for Gilda

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 Gilda

Top names of 1947, Gilda's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1927Girls' names starting with GOpera Names