Gillian
Gillian was given to 47 girls in 2025, #3,306 among girls’ names; 16,127 Americans have been recorded with it since 1922 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,600 Americans named Gillian and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 23 and 39.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gillian by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gillian mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Gillian is “a female given name from Latin; Medieval variant of Julian and Juliana, revived and quite popular in Britain in the mid-twentieth century.”
/ˈd͡ʒɪliən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gillian?
#3,306 among girls’ names, 2025
Gillian fell from #1,746 in 2015 to #3,306 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 67.2 to 29.2 per million.
1,030 babies in 1999, the peak
Gillian peaked in 1999, when 1,030 babies were given it (1,022 girls, #303 among girls’ names). The 47 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 47 | #3,306 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 52 | #3,093 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 51 | #3,199 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 52 | #3,135 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 51 | #3,174 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 52 | #3,069 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 59 | #2,834 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 88 | #2,151 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 81 | #2,289 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 105 | #1,915 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 120 | #1,746 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 125 | #1,686 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 120 | #1,730 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 166 | #1,392 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 188 | #1,267 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 211 | #1,154 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 251 | #1,038 | 0.14 |
| 2008 | 339 | #835 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 366 | #790 | 0.19 |
| 2006 | 362 | #759 | 0.19 |
| 2005 | 420 | #661 | 0.23 |
| 2004 | 513 | #556 | 0.28 |
| 2003 | 638 | #467 | 0.35 |
| 2002 | 761 | #388 | 0.42 |
| 2001 | 863 | #348 | 0.48 |
| 2000 | 976 | #325 | 0.54 |
| 1999 | 1,022 | #303 | 0.58 |
| 1998 | 890 | #331 | 0.50 |
| 1997 | 659 | #396 | 0.38 |
| 1996 | 379 | #604 | 0.22 |
| 1995 | 221 | #868 | 0.13 |
| 1994 | 162 | #1,103 | 0.09 |
| 1993 | 176 | #1,044 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 197 | #969 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 208 | #923 | 0.11 |
| 1990 | 238 | #821 | 0.13 |
| 1989 | 263 | #747 | 0.14 |
| 1988 | 281 | #684 | 0.16 |
| 1987 | 265 | #694 | 0.15 |
| 1986 | 209 | #804 | 0.12 |
| 1985 | 234 | #738 | 0.14 |
| 1984 | 255 | #671 | 0.15 |
| 1983 | 227 | #728 | 0.14 |
| 1982 | 255 | #688 | 0.15 |
| 1981 | 222 | #745 | 0.13 |
| 1980 | 173 | #886 | 0.10 |
| 1979 | 174 | #878 | 0.11 |
| 1978 | 175 | #847 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 162 | #885 | 0.11 |
| 1976 | 95 | #1,195 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 100 | #1,155 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 110 | #1,074 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 139 | #899 | 0.10 |
| 1972 | 128 | #950 | 0.08 |
| 1971 | 121 | #1,021 | 0.07 |
| 1970 | 125 | #998 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 127 | #946 | 0.08 |
| 1968 | 116 | #959 | 0.07 |
| 1967 | 84 | #1,159 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 83 | #1,175 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 82 | #1,190 | 0.05 |
| 1964 | 70 | #1,346 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 61 | #1,430 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 65 | #1,377 | 0.03 |
| 1961 | 51 | #1,582 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 19 | #2,845 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 35 | #1,896 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 25 | #2,280 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 31 | #1,964 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 26 | #2,167 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 29 | #1,993 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 16 | #2,811 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 19 | #2,456 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 16 | #2,716 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 19 | #2,338 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 18 | #2,376 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 23 | #2,030 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 19 | #2,279 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 22 | #2,103 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 11 | #3,101 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 13 | #2,514 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,832 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 10 | #3,119 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,877 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 9 | #3,096 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 7 | #3,632 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,019 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,980 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,304 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gillian a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gillian has been given almost only to girls: 68 boys in 89 years of records.
Girls and boys named Gillian: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gillian, and how old are they?
15,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 16,127 Americans ever recorded as Gillian. The median Gillian alive today is 27 years old; half are between 23 and 39.
The 2020 Census counted 19,505 people named Gillian (19,311 women and girls, 194 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 15,467 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 31 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 464 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,870 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,710 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,550 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,000 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Gillian born?
The states with the most babies named Gillian are California, Texas and Ohio, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,582 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 6 | #3,053 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,333 | 0.8× |
Where Gillian is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gillian is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1922 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Gillian with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 99,551 babies since 1880, Gillian is the second most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 47 of their 224 babies (21%), again the second most given.
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 Gillian
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 Gillian and names like it
- Compare Gillian and JillianBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sGillian peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gillian since 1910.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Gillian.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Gillian alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with GMost given first.