Gael vs Gaelle

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Gael Gaelle

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 83 years in which either name was published, Gael for 73 years and Gaelle for 10 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.

• 1919–1972 Gael ahead
• 1981–1988 Gaelle ahead
• 1989 Gael ahead
• 1990–1991 Gaelle ahead
• 1992–1994 Gael ahead
• 1995 Gaelle ahead
• 1996–1997 Gael ahead
• 1998 Gaelle ahead
• 1999 Gael ahead
• 2000 Gaelle ahead
• 2001–2025 Gael ahead

Side by side

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Gaelles alive today are over 17; half the Gaels are over 7. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

• Gael Nevada (4.3×), Arizona (3.3×), Texas (3.3×)
• Gaelle Florida (19.5×), New York (4.2×)

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

• Gael vs Gaetano
• Gael vs Gaetana
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• Gaelle vs Gaetana
• Gaelle vs Gae