Gicelle
A feminine given name of French origin meaning "pledge" or "hostage".
Name Census estimates that about 52 living Americans carry the first name Gicelle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gicelle today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gicelle births was 2007 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gicelle. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Gicelle. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
52
~ 1 in 6,591,430 Americans
Peak year
2007
11 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2010 SSA rank
#17,936
Tracked since 1999
Census
Gicelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 113 people with the first name Gicelle, which placed it at #51,508 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#51,508
National first-name rank
People counted
113
113 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
92.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gicelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gicelle is Hispanic at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%) and Black (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Gicelle described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Gicelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino92.0% · 104
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 4
- Black or African American2.7% · 3
- White1.8% · 2
Popularity
Gicelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gicelle from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 38 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gicelle by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Gicelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gicelle
The name Gicelle is a French feminine given name. It is believed to have originated from the Old French name Gisela or Giselle, which was derived from the Germanic name Gisila. The root "gis" means "hostage" or "pledge" in Proto-Germanic.
In the Middle Ages, the name Gisela was popular among the nobility in France and Germany. One of the earliest recorded bearers of this name was Gisela, the daughter of King Louis the Pious and Queen Judith of Bavaria, who lived in the 9th century.
Another notable figure in history with this name was Gisela of Burgundy, who was the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. She lived from around 995 to 1043 and was known for her piety and charitable works.
In literature, the name gained popularity after the publication of the Romantic ballet "Giselle" by French composer Adolphe Adam in 1841. The ballet tells the story of a peasant girl named Giselle who falls in love with a nobleman in disguise.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the spelling "Gicelle" can be found in the birth records of a French family in the 17th century. However, it is unclear whether this was a variation of the name Giselle or a separate name entirely.
Several notable women throughout history have borne the name Gicelle, including:
1. Gicelle Musha (1952-2021), a Brazilian actress and singer.
2. Gicelle Velasco (born 1976), a Filipino actress and television host.
3. Gicelle Tanner (born 1985), an American photographer and artist.
4. Gicelle Courtemanche (1937-2018), a Canadian painter and sculptor.
5. Gicelle Pascual (born 1990), a Filipino model and beauty queen.
People
Gicelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gicelle as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gicelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gicelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gicelle going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 6,591,430 US residents.
Is Gicelle a common name?
We classify Gicelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gicelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Gicelle was 2007, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gicelle is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gicelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 113 people with the name Gicelle, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,508 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Gicelle in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Gicelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gicelle appears almost entirely female. Of the 120 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Gicelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gicelle is Hispanic at 92.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.5%) and Black (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Gicelle most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Gicelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.0% (104 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Gicelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gicelle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gicelle in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Gicelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gicelle in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Gicelle can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Gicelle?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Gicelle on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.