Humanverse

Gil vs Gilman

American parents have registered 4,971 Gils since 1880, against 935 Gilmans. Gil is still ahead, with 20 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Gil against Gilman, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Gil Gilman

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 119 years in which either name was published, Gil for 88 years and Gilman for 31 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Gil Gilman
Total US births 4,971935
Most in one year 12434
Babies in 2025 20under 5
Estimated living today 3,900220
Median age today 4775
Peak year 19571918
Best rank 685th boys1,192nd boys
Rank in 2025 4,857thunranked
First recorded 19141887
Girls / boys 0 / 4,9710 / 935

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 Gilmans alive today are over 75; half the Gils are over 47. That is 28 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Gil and Gilman.