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Gilead

Boys' name

Heap of witness

Gilead has been given to 90 babies in the U.S. since 1992. 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 2015, with 11 recorded.

Babies named Gilead, 2024

1 in 418,000

Gilead over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gilead: meaning, origin, and history

Heap of witness

Hebrew

What Gilead means

Gilead means “heap of witness”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Gilead is used in Biblical.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Hebrew גִּלְעָד (gilʻád). For sense 3, the fictional Gilead theocracy from "The Handmaid's Tale" named itself as such because it presented its oppressive policies as "healing" for a fertility crisis.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Gilead (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Gilead is used in English. Its origins include Hebrew.

Gilead comes through Hebrew גִּלְעָד.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Gilead is pronounced /ˈɡɪliæd/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 90 boys were recorded with the name Gilead between 1992 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 11 in 2015; its best national rank was #7,233 in 2015.

How common is Gilead?

Gilead 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 418,000
8 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 215,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
289,633 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gilead 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 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 289,633 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gilead. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gileads were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gilead was born before 2018 — so the typical Gilead is around 7 today.

Median birth year
2018
About 7 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
94.4%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
90
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.3% of all recorded uses (39).

Is Gilead 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 2015 (11)
Years since peak
10
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
35.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#7,233
2015

Spellings of Gilead

Gilead is not the most common spelling — Giles is, with 82.2% against Gilead's 1.6%.

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.

Gilead around the world

Where Gilead 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
    2009–2023
    #4,992
    in 2023

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

Gilead by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#7,233
2015
Peak year
2015
11 that year
First recorded
1992
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
90
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gilead

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

GilmarGilsonGillieGillianGilroyGilliamGillesGildoGilvertoGiladGillisGilmanGilmerGilberGildardoGilmoreGillenMeadGilliganAlfreadFreadGilfredGilfordGillermo

Sibling names for Gilead

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 Gilead

Top names of 2015, Gilead's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2015Boys' names starting with G