Name Awesome

Gillis

Boys' name

Form of Gilles

Gillis has been given to 712 babies in the U.S. since 1900. 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 1923, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Gillis, 2001

1 in 624,000

Gillis over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gillis: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Gilles

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Gillis means

Gillis is a form of Gilles.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Gillis is used in Swedish (Rare) and Dutch (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɣɪ.lɪs/ for Gillis.

Origin, language, and formation

Gillis is used in Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gilles and Giles.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 712 boys were recorded with the name Gillis between 1900 and 2001. Its highest annual count was 20 in 1923; its best national rank was #1,392 in 1900.

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 Gillis?

Gillis had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2001, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2001
1 in 624,000
6 of 3,742,181 births
Among boys only
1 in 324,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2001
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
432,315 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gillis 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 2001 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 432,315 children born in 2001 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gillis. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Gilliss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gillis was born before 1939 — so the typical Gillis is around 86 today.

Median birth year
1939
About 86 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.2%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
229
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.4% of all recorded uses (138).

Is Gillis 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 1923 (20)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,392
1900

Spellings of Gillis

Gillis is not the most common spelling — Willie is, with 73.4% against Gillis's 0.12%.

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 Gillis is used

Across 1910–2025, Gillis was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 663,120 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 100,000
  2. 2Alabama1 in —
  3. 3Louisiana1 in —
  4. 4Texas1 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. Gillis has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Gillis around the world

Where Gillis 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.

  • South Australia
    1971–1971
    #512
    in 1971

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Gillis 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
#1,392
1900
Peak year
1923
20 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
2001
All-time count
712
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Gillis

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

GilmanDallisGilmerGillesGildardoGilmoreSylisCylisGilfordGillieWallisGilesGiladGillermoGilmarArlisCarlisHillisCollisGillGileadTellisGildoEulis

Sibling names for Gillis

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 Gillis

Top names of 1923, Gillis's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1900Boys' names starting with GSwedish NamesUncommon Swedish Boy Names