Gillis
A masculine name of French origin meaning "servant of Christ".
Name Census estimates that about 276 living Americans carry the first name Gillis. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gillis today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gillis births was 1923 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gillis. 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 Gillis is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gillis' were born before 1965.
People living today
276
~ 1 in 1,241,864 Americans
Peak year
1923
20 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
2001 SSA rank
#9,686
Tracked since 1900
Census
Gillis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 373 people with the first name Gillis, which placed it at #25,428 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
#25,428
National first-name rank
People counted
373
373 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gillis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gillis is White at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Black (24.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Gillis 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 Gillis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.2% · 258
- Black or African American24.4% · 91
- Two or more races2.7% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 3
Popularity
Gillis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gillis from the 1900s through to the 2000s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 138 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gillis 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 Gillis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gillis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Gillis, while Texas, Louisiana, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gillis
The given name Gillis has its origins in the medieval Dutch and Flemish cultures, tracing back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Germanic root "Gil," which means "pledge" or "security." This root is also found in names like Gilbert and Gilberto.
During the Middle Ages, Gillis was a popular name among the Dutch-speaking regions of modern-day Netherlands and Belgium. It was often a diminutive form of the name Giles or Gijsbert. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in municipal records and church registers from cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Bruges.
In medieval Christian tradition, Gillis was associated with Saint Giles, a 7th-century Athenian hermit and abbot who became the patron saint of beggars, cripples, and lepers. His feast day, celebrated on September 1st, was a significant occasion for many bearing the name Gillis.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Gillis was Gillis de Vlaminc, a 13th-century Flemish poet and writer who composed works in Middle Dutch. Another prominent individual was Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607), a Flemish painter known for his landscape paintings and depictions of wildlife.
In the 17th century, Gillis de Hondecoeter (1626-1695) was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his detailed and vibrant paintings of birds. His contemporary, Gillis Nuyts (1635-1692), was a Dutch colonial governor who served in the Dutch East Indies and lent his name to the Nuyts Archipelago off the southern coast of Australia.
During the Dutch Renaissance, Gillis van Coninxloo II (1544-1607) was a notable painter and engraver, known for his religious and mythological works. His contemporary, Gillis Mostaert (1534-1598), was a Flemish Renaissance painter and draughtsman who worked in the Baroque style.
While the name Gillis has largely fallen out of favor in modern times, it remains a part of the cultural heritage of the Low Countries, particularly in the Netherlands and Flanders region of Belgium, where it has been a traditional name for centuries.
People
Gillis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gillis 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
Gillis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gillis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 276 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gillis 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 1,241,864 US residents.
Is Gillis a common name?
We classify Gillis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 712 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gillis most popular?
The single biggest year for Gillis was 1923, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gillis is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gillis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 373 people with the name Gillis, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,428 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 Gillis 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 Gillis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gillis leans strongly male. 330 people counted with this name were male (88.0%), compared with 45 female bearers (12.0%). 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 Gillis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gillis is White at 69.2%. The next largest groups are Black (24.4%) and Two or More Races (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 Gillis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gillis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.2% (258 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 Gillis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gillis a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gillis 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.
Is Gillis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gillis 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 Gillis 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 the name Gillis?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.