Name Awesome

Gisela

#3,931 in 2025Girls' name

Pledge, through Giselle

Gisela has been given to 4,246 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #3,931 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1995, with 160 recorded.

Babies named Gisela, 2025

1 in 89,600

Gisela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Gisela: meaning, origin, and history

Pledge, through Giselle

Germanic languages

What Gisela means

Gisela belongs to the name family reached through Gisela → Giselle. Its meaning is “pledge”.

Origin, language, and formation

Gisela is used in Basque, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Giselle.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Basque, Gisela is pronounced /ɡis̺ela/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,246 girls were recorded with the name Gisela between 1915 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 160 in 1995; its best national rank was #1,106 in 1995.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,802 in 2020 to #3,931 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,229 in 2015 to #3,931 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 Gisela?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 89,600
37 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 43,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,931
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
62,106 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Gisela 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 62,106 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Gisela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Giselas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Gisela was born before 1994 — so the typical Gisela is around 31 today.

Median birth year
1994
About 31 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
21.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
36.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
4,131
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 21.4% of all recorded uses (909).

Is Gisela 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
+386
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−129
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−702
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.73×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
23.1%
Peak was 1995 (160)
Years since peak
30
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,106
1995

Spellings of Gisela

Gisela is not the most common spelling — Isla is, with 38.9% against Gisela's 2.8%.

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 Gisela is used

Across 1910–2025, Gisela was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 14,286 girls, against 1 in 25,112 across all states with data. It was least common in Maryland (1 in —).

07 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 14,286
  2. 2California1 in 16,667
  3. 3New York1 in 33,333
  4. 4Arizona1 in 50,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 50,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 100,000
  7. 7New Jersey1 in 100,000
  8. 8Maryland1 in —

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

Gisela around the world

Where Gisela 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
    2000–2019
    #5,591
    in 2019
  • France
    1927–1970
    #2,047
    in 1970
  • South Australia
    1952–2012
    #871
    in 2012

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

Notable people named Gisela

People whose public names include Gisela, 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.

Gisela in other languages

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

GicelaGiseleGizelaGisellaGiselleGizellaGisèleXisela

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

Gisela by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,931
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 129
Best rank ever
#1,106
1995
Peak year
1995
160 that year
First recorded
1915
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,246
Count in 2025
37

Names similar to Gisela

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

GiseleGisselGisellGisselaArielaGiselGisellaGissellEstelaLeelaRafaelaIselaKaelaGisselleMakaelaJaelaShielaShaelaAnielaMichelaMarcelaJamelaMayelaIzabela

Names with a curve like Gisela

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

DeonnaMirellaAlisiaSerinaShayneDanyaAideMyriamJacindaCaterinaAnamariaLeeanna

Sibling names for Gisela

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 Gisela

Top names of 1995, Gisela's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1995Girls' names starting with GBasque Girl Names