Gayl
Gayl was last recorded in 1975, when 6 babies were given it; 622 Americans have been recorded with it between 1917 and 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gayl by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Gayl?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #8,323, in 1975; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
43 babies in 1952, the peak
Gayl peaked in 1952, when 43 girls were given it, #1,474 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 6 | #8,323 | 4.1 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,261 | 5.5 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,694 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,193 | 4.8 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,359 | 3.4 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,837 | 3.0 |
| 1968 | 10 | #4,585 | 6.1 |
| 1966 | 14 | #3,446 | 8.3 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,608 | 5.1 |
| 1964 | 9 | #4,736 | 4.7 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 18 | #2,994 | 9.3 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,653 | 6.6 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,666 | 6.4 |
| 1960 | 11 | #3,994 | 5.4 |
| 1959 | 17 | #2,901 | 8.4 |
| 1958 | 17 | #2,899 | 8.5 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,333 | 4.4 |
| 1956 | 24 | #2,274 | 12.0 |
| 1955 | 21 | #2,425 | 10.7 |
| 1954 | 29 | #1,957 | 14.9 |
| 1953 | 23 | #2,194 | 12.2 |
| 1952 | 43 | #1,474 | 23.2 |
| 1951 | 25 | #1,981 | 13.9 |
| 1950 | 17 | #2,476 | 9.9 |
| 1949 | 23 | #2,029 | 13.4 |
| 1948 | 12 | #3,027 | 7.1 |
| 1947 | 24 | #2,016 | 13.5 |
| 1946 | 17 | #2,339 | 10.8 |
| 1945 | 19 | #1,951 | 14.5 |
| 1944 | 14 | #2,444 | 10.5 |
| 1943 | 13 | #2,602 | 9.3 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,708 | 8.9 |
| 1941 | 18 | #1,977 | 14.9 |
| 1940 | 9 | #3,048 | 7.9 |
| 1939 | 12 | #2,471 | 10.9 |
| 1938 | 11 | #2,638 | 10.0 |
| 1937 | 14 | #2,233 | 13.2 |
| 1936 | 8 | #3,215 | 7.7 |
| 1935 | 11 | #2,622 | 10.5 |
| 1934 | 10 | #2,805 | 9.6 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,452 | 5.0 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,584 | 4.7 |
| 1927 | 5 | #5,087 | 4.2 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,873 | 4.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gayl a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 622 Americans recorded as Gayl, 98% are girls and 2% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Gayl: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gayl, and how old are they?
An estimated 411 Americans named Gayl and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (66% of everyone recorded); the median is 72 years old and half are between 65 and 77. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 637 people named Gayl (580 women and girls, 57 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 471 born in the U.S. The Census count is 35% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Gayl rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Gayl?
Gayl is a less common spelling of Gail: SSA has recorded 622 Gayl and 210,698 Gail since 1880.
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 211,723 babies since 1880, Gayl is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 27 babies recorded by SSA was a Gayl (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Gayl
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Gayl and names like it
- Compare Gayl and GailBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sGayl peaked in 1952.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gayl since 1910.
- The top names of 1952The year the most babies were named Gayl.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Gayl alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with GMost given first.