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Giles

#6,928 in 2025Boys' name

Kid, young goat

Giles has been given to 4,732 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #6,928 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 86 recorded.

Babies named Giles, 2025

1 in 276,000

Giles over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Giles: meaning, origin, and history

Kid, young goat

Ancient Greek

What Giles means

Giles means “kid, young goat”, associated with aigídion.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Medieval English form of Old French saints' name Giles, modern Gilles, an altered form of Latin Aegīdius, from Ancient Greek Αἰγίδιος (Aigídios), derivative of αἰγίδιον (aigídion, “kid, young goat”).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Giles is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Giles comes through Latin Aegīdius and Ancient Greek Αἰγίδιος.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Aegīdius.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Giles is pronounced /d͡ʒaɪlz/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,732 boys were recorded with the name Giles between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 86 in 1918; its best national rank was #367 in 1881.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,099 in 2020 to #6,928 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,773 in 2015 to #6,928 in 2025.

How common is Giles?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 142,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,928
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Giles 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 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Giles. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Giless were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Giles was born before 1944 — so the typical Giles is around 81 today.

Median birth year
1944
About 81 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
14.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,119
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 14.5% of all recorded uses (685).

Is Giles 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
−1,805
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,829
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,155
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.60×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.0%
Peak was 1918 (86)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#367
1881

Spellings of Giles

Giles is not the most common spelling — Glen is, with 21.5% against Giles's 0.81%.

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 Giles is used

Across 1910–2025, Giles was most concentrated in Virginia — about 1 in 12,500 boys, against 1 in 129,206 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

08 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Virginia1 in 12,500
  2. 2North Carolina1 in 33,333
  3. 3Mississippi1 in 100,000
  4. 4Texas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 100,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in —
  7. 7California1 in —
  8. 8Florida1 in —

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

Giles around the world

Where Giles 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
    1974–1983
    #314
    in 1983
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–1997
    #271
    in 1997
  • Ireland
    1971–1982
    #330
    in 1982
  • France
    1921–1981
    #2,281
    in 1981
  • Canada
    1991–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1944–2007
    #680
    in 2007

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

Notable people named Giles

People whose public names include Giles, 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.

Giles in other languages

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

GilGylesJilesEgidioGillesGilsIdziEgyedGilioJiljíEgidiusAegidius

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

Giles by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,928
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,829
Best rank ever
#367
1881
Peak year
1918
86 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,732
Count in 2025
12

Names similar to Giles

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

GillesNilesGilJulesNylesLesJilesGillGilmerStilesGilmanGildardoAchillesMylesGillisStylesGiladGilbertoGilfordWellesMilesGildoGilmoreAquiles

Names with a curve like Giles

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

RowlandLuciousCarletonLafayetteObieReynoldRichmondEldridgeLonzoAlvisOranAdolphus

Sibling names for Giles

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 Giles

Top names of 1918, Giles's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with G