Ghislaine

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.

• French:/ɡi.lejn/●(recorded in a dictionary) from Wiktionary

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Ghislaine, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Jeffrey
• Donald
• Adolf
• French
• Isis

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Ghislaine 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 French, Feminine of Ghislain; Germanic from gisal- 'pledge'.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• Old French: oblique case of GISELLE, in a spelling that suggests Dutch or Flemish influence.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In French, a female given name from the Germanic languages, female equivalent of Ghislain

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In French, Origine germanique; signifie « douce otage ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In French, Féminin de Ghislain, du germanique *gisil*.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

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.

• Ghislaine Maxwellb. 1961GBBritish socialite and sex trafficker, daughter of Robert Maxwell, accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein
• Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acozb. 1973BEnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Belgium
• Charles Michelb. 1975BEnot in their usual nameBelgian politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium, President of the European Council

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).

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.

51 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 33 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Ghislaine mean, and where does it come from?

Feminine of Ghislain, from Germanic gisil, 'pledge, hostage'. Recorded by Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms.

What are other forms of the name Ghislaine?

In the etymology graph, Gisela, Giselle and Gisella are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Ghislaine?

In French /ɡi.lejn/ (Wiktionary).

Which countries have the most people named Ghislaine?

Mondonomo estimates about 41 thousand people named Ghislaine in France, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ghislaine. After it come Congo - Kinshasa, Cameroon, Belgium and Canada; the country table on this page ranks them.

Is Ghislaine a male or female name?

Ghislaine is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: France (INSEE, 2007), Netherlands (Meertens NVB), United States (Census Bureau, 2020) and Brazil (IBGE, 2022).

How common is the name Ghislaine?

In the Netherlands, the national register counted 1,647 people named Ghislaine, about 1 in 10 thousand residents.

How common is Ghislaine compared with other names?

In France, Ghislaine is the 330th most common given name of 754,146 given names recorded there.