Gail: Meaning of Baby Name Gail

Gail Popularity Snapshot

Across the entire US Social Security Administration record (1880–2024), 8,951 baby boys have been named Gail. The name peaked in 1942 with 227 US births that year (rank #404).

Top States for Gail

Based on 1910–2024 US SSA state-level records, the three states with the most Gail births are: Ohio (801), Illinois (609), Iowa (572).

Other English-Origin Names Like Gail

If you like Gail's English origin, consider these related names: Aaric, Aarika, Aarshiya, Aase, Aasiya. Browse all English names →

4-Letter Names Starting with G

Names with Gail's exact length and starting letter: Ga!L, Gabe, Gabi, Gaby, Gace.

Quick Facts About Gail

5,642

English baby names in our dictionary

3,391

English male names

64

4-letter G-names in our dictionary

470

G-male names total

1937–1961

years of US SSA records (25 total)

158,358

total US births named Gail (all years)

US Popularity History (1937–1961)

↘️ Falling: Gail dropped 45 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#49 in 1956 → #94 in 1961).

Annual US births named Gail by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1951 with 9,886 girls named Gail (girl rank #36 that year).

Where it stands today: in 1961, ranked #94 for girls (4,972 US births). That's 58 places below its 1951 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Gail Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 1959–1968 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Gail the strongest states are Hawaii, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Hawaii	#57	201
2	Rhode Island	#61	390
3	New Hampshire	#70	189
4	Massachusetts	#70	1,821
5	Connecticut	#70	731
6	North Dakota	#71	154
7	District of Columbia	#71	196
8	Maine	#71	312
9	Wisconsin	#72	1,121
10	New Jersey	#73	1,615

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Nebraska	#96	112
2	Pennsylvania	#91	1,537
3	Louisiana	#88	330
4	Missouri	#88	588
5	Montana	#87	87
6	South Carolina	#84	229
7	Alaska	#84	39
8	Washington	#84	427
9	Florida	#82	614
10	Vermont	#82	112

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 1959–1968. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Gail in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Galia	God Shall Redeem	Female	Hebrew

Looking for names like Gail?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

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Compare Gail to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Gail against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Gail vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Gail vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Gail vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Gail vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Gail vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Gail vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Gail vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Gail vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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