Gillian
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Feminine form of Julian; of uncertain meaning
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒɪliən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Gillian is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 1K(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 2.1K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 2.6K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Gillian itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 503 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.0K (inferred from the name graph)
78,761 named Jillian, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Jillian in US United States, CN China.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Feminine form of Julian; of uncertain meaning. Used in Ireland in modern times.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Gillian counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #697 | 78,761as Jillian | 1 in 4.2K | 79K | Jillian | 503 |
| CN China | — | ≈71,000 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Jillian | 37 |
| GB United Kingdom | #150 | ≈63,000 est. | ≈1 in 1K | 5 | Gillian | 314 |
| ZA South Africa | #549 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.8K | — | Gillian | 97 |
| AU Australia | #276 | ≈9,700 est. | ≈1 in 2.6K | 90 | Gillian | 206 |
| IE Ireland | #196 | ≈2,500 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | — | Gillian | 128 |
| NZ New Zealand | #245 | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 3.2K | 16 | Gillian | 120 |
| ES Spain | — | 367 | 1 in 136K | 396 | Gillian | 83 |
| GY Guyana | — | 264 | 1 in 2.8K | 264 | — | 5 |
78,761 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Gillian is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, colloquial pronunciation of Julian or more commonly Juliana; first attested Giliana 1198 FF (Sf).
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, From Roman family name; feminine form of Julian, a derivative of Julia.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In French, English form of Gillian/Julian; from Latin Iulianus.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
In English, Irish (Tyrone and Derry); reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gileain ‘son of Giledn\ a variant of the personal name Gealdn, from a diminutive of geal ‘bright’, ‘white’.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
A feminine form of Julian, name of uncertain meaning. It is used in Ireland in modern times.
as a nameIrish first names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Gillian Lynneb. 1926GBBritish ballet dancer, actress, choreographer and director (1926-2018)
- Gillian Roseb. 1947GBBritish philosopher (1947–1995)
- Gillian Armstrongb. 1950AUfilm director
- Gillian Andersonb. 1968USAmerican actress (born 1968)
- Gillian Keeganb. 1968GBBritish politician
- Gillian Flynnb. 1971USAmerican author and critic
- Gillian Vigmanb. 1972USAmerican actress
- Gillian Chungb. 1981CNHong Kong actress and singer
- Gillian Jacobsb. 1982USAmerican film, theater and television actress
- Gillian Zinserb. 1985USAmerican actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 73 sources across 41 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 19K | #1,627 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 396 | #2,496 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 367 | #5,680 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 264 | #339 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 194 | #1,627 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 47 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1981 | 16 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2016 | 6 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2010 | 4 | #666 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1985 | 4 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2003 | 3 | #331 |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2013 | 1 | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Gillian?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒɪliən/ (IPA) for English.
- Where does the name Gillian come from?
- Feminine form of Julian; of uncertain meaning. Used in Ireland in modern times. Recorded by Irish first names.
- What does the name Gillian mean?
- Recorded meaning: Feminine form of Julian; of uncertain meaning.
- What are other forms of the name Gillian?
- In the etymology graph, Julia, Juliana and Julius are forms of the same name in other languages; Jill is a recorded short or pet form.
- Is Gillian a male or female name?
- Gillian is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Gillian have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 79 thousand people named Jillian, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Gillian?
- In Spain, the national register counted 367 people named Gillian, about 1 in 136 thousand residents.
- How common is Gillian compared with other names?
- In the United States, Gillian is the 697th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Gillian?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/gillianThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gillian” — the 697th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.