Gisela
Gisela was given to 37 girls in 2025, #3,931 among girls’ names; 4,246 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,000 Americans named Gisela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 20 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Gisela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Gisela mean?
Wiktionary, Portuguese section
Gisela is “a female given name from the Germanic languages, equivalent to English Giselle”
Borrowed from French Giselle, from Germanic.
/ʒiˈzɛ.lɐ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Portuguese section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Gisela?
#3,931 among girls’ names, 2025
Gisela fell from #3,229 in 2015 to #3,931 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 28.6 to 23.0 per million.
160 babies in 1995, the peak
Gisela peaked in 1995, when 160 girls were given it, #1,106 among girls’ names. The 37 births of 2025 are 23% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 37 | #3,931 | 23.0 |
| 2024 | 33 | #4,317 | 20.4 |
| 2023 | 40 | #3,793 | 24.9 |
| 2022 | 34 | #4,236 | 20.7 |
| 2021 | 30 | #4,542 | 18.3 |
| 2020 | 38 | #3,802 | 23.5 |
| 2019 | 33 | #4,286 | 19.7 |
| 2018 | 41 | #3,700 | 24.1 |
| 2017 | 41 | #3,719 | 23.7 |
| 2016 | 46 | #3,430 | 26.0 |
Every recorded year (92)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 | #3,229 | 28.6 |
| 2014 | 41 | #3,737 | 23.0 |
| 2013 | 42 | #3,659 | 23.9 |
| 2012 | 56 | #3,023 | 31.8 |
| 2011 | 61 | #2,849 | 34.7 |
| 2010 | 68 | #2,652 | 38.3 |
| 2009 | 56 | #3,061 | 30.5 |
| 2008 | 83 | #2,341 | 43.9 |
| 2007 | 81 | #2,356 | 42.1 |
| 2006 | 102 | #1,965 | 53.7 |
| 2005 | 114 | #1,733 | 61.7 |
| 2004 | 115 | #1,689 | 62.6 |
| 2003 | 118 | #1,630 | 64.6 |
| 2002 | 81 | #2,101 | 45.1 |
| 2001 | 85 | #1,998 | 47.2 |
| 2000 | 74 | #2,157 | 40.7 |
| 1999 | 79 | #1,982 | 44.5 |
| 1998 | 103 | #1,586 | 58.3 |
| 1997 | 77 | #1,903 | 44.2 |
| 1996 | 98 | #1,586 | 55.9 |
| 1995 | 160 | #1,106 | 91.0 |
| 1994 | 102 | #1,522 | 57.1 |
| 1993 | 72 | #1,951 | 39.8 |
| 1992 | 64 | #2,106 | 34.7 |
| 1991 | 59 | #2,216 | 31.5 |
| 1990 | 87 | #1,688 | 45.8 |
| 1989 | 46 | #2,485 | 25.0 |
| 1988 | 59 | #2,015 | 33.1 |
| 1987 | 38 | #2,622 | 21.9 |
| 1986 | 48 | #2,176 | 28.0 |
| 1985 | 56 | #1,952 | 32.5 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,529 | 22.0 |
| 1983 | 45 | #2,166 | 26.9 |
| 1982 | 47 | #2,161 | 27.8 |
| 1981 | 73 | #1,606 | 43.8 |
| 1980 | 62 | #1,772 | 37.3 |
| 1979 | 75 | #1,548 | 46.7 |
| 1978 | 83 | #1,401 | 54.2 |
| 1977 | 75 | #1,473 | 48.9 |
| 1976 | 85 | #1,290 | 58.0 |
| 1975 | 98 | #1,178 | 67.2 |
| 1974 | 77 | #1,356 | 52.5 |
| 1973 | 38 | #2,100 | 26.1 |
| 1972 | 46 | #1,838 | 30.2 |
| 1971 | 40 | #2,079 | 24.0 |
| 1970 | 29 | #2,538 | 16.6 |
| 1969 | 34 | #2,176 | 20.2 |
| 1968 | 26 | #2,450 | 15.8 |
| 1967 | 35 | #1,986 | 21.2 |
| 1966 | 35 | #1,964 | 20.7 |
| 1965 | 35 | #1,959 | 19.8 |
| 1964 | 36 | #1,987 | 19.0 |
| 1963 | 36 | #1,959 | 18.7 |
| 1962 | 36 | #1,923 | 18.3 |
| 1961 | 26 | #2,381 | 12.9 |
| 1960 | 33 | #1,993 | 16.3 |
| 1959 | 34 | #1,930 | 16.8 |
| 1958 | 32 | #1,953 | 15.9 |
| 1957 | 19 | #2,685 | 9.3 |
| 1956 | 12 | #3,556 | 6.0 |
| 1955 | 15 | #3,017 | 7.7 |
| 1954 | 14 | #3,067 | 7.2 |
| 1953 | 9 | #4,049 | 4.8 |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,863 | 2.7 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,867 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,539 | 5.6 |
| 1941 | 5 | #4,653 | 4.1 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,495 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,459 | 4.8 |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,092 | 5.6 |
| 1931 | 8 | #3,327 | 7.5 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,463 | 7.1 |
| 1929 | 10 | #3,009 | 9.0 |
| 1928 | 9 | #3,285 | 7.8 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,499 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,159 | 4.2 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,636 | 4.9 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,614 | 5.0 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,306 | 4.2 |
| 1918 | 5 | #5,116 | 4.3 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,890 | 4.6 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,545 | 5.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Gisela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Gisela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 92 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Gisela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Gisela, and how old are they?
4,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 4,246 Americans ever recorded as Gisela. The median Gisela alive today is 31 years old; half are between 20 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 12,810 people named Gisela (12,788 women and girls, 22 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,852 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.3 times 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 | 8 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 267 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 816 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,060 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,340 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 504 |
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 Gisela born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,054 | 2.2× |
Where Gisela is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Gisela is most over-represented in Texas: since 1915 it was given 2.2 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 Gisela 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 62,310 babies since 1880, Gisela is the third most given (6.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 37 of their 913 babies (4.1%), again the third 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 Gisela
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 Gisela and names like it
- Compare Gisela and GiselleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sGisela peaked in 1995.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Gisela since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Gisela: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Gisela.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Gisela alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with GMost given first.