Gilles
A masculine name of French origin meaning "young goat".
Name Census estimates that about 212 living Americans carry the first name Gilles. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gilles today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gilles births was 1928 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gilles. 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
- • The typical person named Gilles is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gilles' were born before 1969.
People living today
212
~ 1 in 1,616,766 Americans
Peak year
1928
13 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2001 SSA rank
#9,685
Tracked since 1923
Popularity
Gilles: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gilles from the 1920s through to the 2000s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 82 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gilles 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 Gilles during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gilles' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gilles
The name Gilles is a masculine given name of French origin, derived from the Frankish name Gilo or Gilo. It is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Gisilhari, which means "youth with the bright hair" or "bright hostage." The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages and has been in use since at least the 8th century.
In the early Christian era, the name Gilles was associated with several saints and martyrs. One of the most notable was Saint Giles (also known as Aegidius or Giles the Hermit), a 7th-century Athenian who lived as a hermit in the south of France. He is considered the patron saint of beggars, cripples, and lepers, and his feast day is celebrated on September 1st.
The earliest recorded use of the name Gilles can be found in the Frankish Annals, which mention a Count Gilles who was sent as an ambassador by Charlemagne in the late 8th century. In the 12th century, the legendary French poet and trouvère Gilles li Muisis (c. 1272-1352) gained renown for his works celebrating the love between knights and their ladies.
Over the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Gilles. These include Gilles de Rais (1404-1440), a French nobleman and military leader who fought alongside Joan of Arc, but later gained infamy for his crimes against children; Gilles de Gouberville (1521-1578), a French nobleman and diarist whose journals provide valuable insights into 16th-century rural life; and Gilles de Rais (1588-1646), a French mathematician and early writer on probability theory.
More recently, the name Gilles has been associated with Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), the influential French philosopher known for his works on postmodernism and post-structuralism; Gilles Vigneault (born 1928), a renowned Canadian poet, writer, and singer-songwriter; and Gilles Villeneuve (1950-1982), the legendary Canadian race car driver who won six Grand Prix races before his untimely death.
While the name Gilles has seen periodic popularity throughout history, it has remained a distinctly French name, with various spellings and diminutive forms, such as Gilo, Gilo, and Gilou, emerging in different regions and eras.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gilles
People
Gilles + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gilles 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
Gilles: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gilles?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 212 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gilles 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 1,616,766 US residents.
Is Gilles a common name?
We classify Gilles as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 359 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gilles most popular?
The single biggest year for Gilles was 1928, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gilles is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Gilles a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gilles in the SSA data are male. 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.
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.