Gillian
A feminine name of English/French origin meaning "youthful".
Name Census estimates that about 15,315 living Americans carry the first name Gillian. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gillian today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gillian births was 1999 (1,030 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gillian. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Gillian with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Gillian is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 68 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,380 Americans
Peak year
1999
1,030 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2016 SSA rank
#3,124
Tracked since 1922
Census
Gillian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,500 people with the first name Gillian, which placed it at #1,627 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
#1,627
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,500 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gillian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gillian is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Gillian 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 Gillian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.9% · 15,381
- Black or African American7.1% · 1,389
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 1,211
- Two or more races4.5% · 868
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 598
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 53
Gender
Gender distribution for Gillian
Out of the 16,079 babies given the name Gillian since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Gillian as a male name
- Ranked #11,190 in 2016
- 6 male births in 2016
- Peak: 1988 (10 births)
Gillian as a female name
- Ranked #3,124 in 2024
- 51 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (1,022 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gillian appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,505 people counted with this name, 99.0% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Gillian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gillian from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5,503 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
Gillian 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 Gillian during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gillians live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Gillian, while Vermont, Hawaii, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 271 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gillian
The name Gillian has its origins in the medieval French form of the ancient Germanic name Gilli, which means "youthful" or "young." It is derived from the Old French name Gile, which was a diminutive of Guillaume, the French form of the Germanic name William.
The name Gillian first gained popularity in England during the Middle Ages. It was initially more commonly used as a masculine name, but by the 13th century, it had also become a feminine name. The earliest recorded use of the name Gillian as a feminine name dates back to around 1200 AD.
In medieval literature, one of the earliest known references to the name Gillian can be found in the 12th-century French romance "Le Roman de la Rose," where it is used as a masculine name. Another early reference is in the 14th-century English poem "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, where the name Gillian is used for a female character.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Gillian. One of the earliest recorded was Gillian de Vaux, a 12th-century English noblewoman who was the mother of Hubert de Burgh, a prominent figure in the reign of King John. Another early bearer of the name was Gillian of Norwich (c. 1366 - c. 1430), an English mystic and author of the first known book written in English by a woman.
In more recent times, the name Gillian has been borne by several famous individuals, including Gillian Anderson (born 1968), the American actress known for her role as Dana Scully in the TV series "The X-Files," and Gillian Jacobs (born 1982), an American actress best known for her role as Britta Perry in the sitcom "Community."
Other notable bearers of the name include Gillian Barre (1874-1959), a French neurologist who first described the condition now known as Guillain-Barré syndrome, and Gillian Tett (born 1967), a British author and journalist who has written extensively on financial markets and economic issues.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gillian
People
Gillian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gillian 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
Gillian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gillian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,315 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gillian 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 22,380 US residents.
Is Gillian a common name?
We classify Gillian as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,079 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gillian most popular?
The single biggest year for Gillian was 1999, when 1,030 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gillian is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gillian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,500 people with the name Gillian, or 6.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,627 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 Gillian 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 Gillian?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gillian appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,505 people counted with this name, 99.0% 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 Gillian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gillian is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Gillian most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gillian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (15,381 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 Gillian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gillian a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Gillian 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 Gillian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gillian 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 Gillian 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 many people have Gillian as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.