Table of contents
Girl name origins & meanings
- Latin : Youthful
How Popular Is The Name Gill
Family name origins & meanings
- English : from a short form of the personal names Giles, Julian, or William. In theory the name would have a soft initial when derived from the first two of these, and a hard one when from William or from the other possibilities discussed in 2–4 below. However, there has been much confusion over the centuries.
- Northern English : topographic name for someone who lived by a ravine or deep glen, Middle English gil(l), Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.
- Scottish and Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish), Mac Giolla (Irish), patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill. The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin, and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England.
- Scottish and Irish : reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall 1).
- Norwegian : habitational name from any of three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil, from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.
- Dutch : cognate of Giles.
- Jewish (Israeli) : ornamental name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’.
- German : from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegidius (see Gilger).
- Indian (Panjab) : Sikh name, probably from Panjabi gil ‘moisture’, also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.