Gail

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Gail is a given name, most frequently recorded in Argentina. In Honduras it is the 40th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and , written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: English short form of Abigail, from Hebrew Avigayil ‘my father is joy’.

rarermore common
  • HNHonduras1 in 858◐
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 1.1K
  • AUAustralia1 in 1.2K

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈332K ●

across 7 countries

#600 ●

of 16M given names

5 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
502 ●

3.1M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 676 ◐

Slovenia

Spellings & scripts●

GailLatin · English●2.8M records
גיילHebrew · Hebrew●3K records
가일Hangul · Korean●74 records
গেইলBengali · Bangla●2 records
ΓκαελGreek · Greek●0 records

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Gael in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, FR France and 8 more, גייל in IL Israel, Gall in CH Switzerland and Gal in NL Netherlands.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

English short form of Abigail, from Hebrew Avigayil ‘my father is joy’.

Sources 1

  • Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Gail is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
AR Argentina#366270,226130K rec.—7.3KGael96
GB United Kingdom#184193,275172K rec.—3Gail201
US United States#206161,6392.3M rec.1 in 2.1K162KGail502
BR Brazil#596110,946△2.5K rec.1 in 1.9K111KGael117
AU Australia#24394,95176K rec.—78Gail188
MX Mexico#39090,82027K rec.——Gael126
CA Canada#21765,33263K rec.—3Gail179
PE Peru#60845,9694.4K rec.—10KGael31
FR France#38527,56596K rec.1 in 2.5K28KGael329
HN Honduras#4021,34348 rec.—7.1KGael10
DE Germany—18,60219K rec.—1Gail125
IT Italy#43816,12818K rec.—28Gail71

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English2.8M83%
  • 165K5%
  • Spanish109K3%
  • French22K1%
  • German22K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English2,753,45383%
165,2555%
Spanish109,4143%
French22,4951%
German21,9641%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Gail is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate given name184K records spelled Gail2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

    Also written Gaïl

  • Spanish given name181K records spelled Gail10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Philippines, Brazil

    Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

    Also written Gäìl, Gãíl, Gaïl, Gaíl

  • Russian given name14K records spelled Gail58 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Russian, Polish, Czech

    Also written Gayle, Hale, Гайль, Gale, Гайл

  • a separate given name1.3K records spelled Gail5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Philippines

    Also written Gáil, Gäil, Gaïl, Gåîl

59 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Gail 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 English, Hebrew: father's joy; short form of Abigail, also used independently.

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, nickname from Old French gail ‘cheerful’, ‘jolly’.

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In English, A female given name, a diminutive of Abigail.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In French, Diminutive of Abigail; Hebrew origin.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

  • In English, Diminutive of Abigail.

    as a nameIrish first names

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.

Over time●

02.5K5K7.5K10K1900195020009.9K · 1951

Show as table
Gail in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1881–2025
Yearrecords
18815
18828
18838
18848
188517
188612
18879
188815
188919
189020
189129
189221
189331
189422
189532
189636
189732
189832
189932
190028
190125
190226
190331
190436
190514
190634
190735
190830
190932
191033
191132
191253
191361
1914102
1915143
1916196
1917217
1918206
1919184
1920181
1921204
1922175
1923208
1924172
1925179
1926206
1927186
1928176
1929172
1930198
1931239
1932354
1933541
19341,176
19351,800
19362,342
19372,635
19383,214
19393,355
19403,621
19413,609
19424,445
19434,810
19444,526
19454,832
19466,227
19477,242
19486,603
19497,225
19508,350
19519,886
19529,760
19539,585
19549,726
19558,972
19568,435
19577,952
19586,608
19596,344
19605,428
19614,973
19624,380
19634,104
19643,446
19652,859
19662,301
19672,022
19681,802
19691,562
19701,424
19711,184
1972987
1973746
1974628
1975560
1976475
1977392
1978392
1979350
1980303
1981290
1982306
1983275
1984238
1985194
1986154
1987144
1988136
1989131
1990127
1991117
199293
199377
199465
199554
199663
199758
199857
199941
200037
200128
200230
200337
200446
200524
200621
200723
200819
200919
201015
201114
201222
201324
201413
201515
201620
201713
201818
201915
202019
202120
202213
202321
202417
202512

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 145 years between 1881–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

19001920194019601980Gail Patrick, b. 1911Gail Russell, b. 1924Gloria Leonard, b. 1940Madeline Kahn, b. 1942Oprah Winfrey, b. 1954Gail Berman, b. 1956Gail O'Grady, b. 1963Gail Devers, b. 1966Gail Simone, b. 1974Gail Kim, b. 1977
  • Gail Patrickb. 1911USAmerican actress and television producer
  • Gail Russellb. 1924USactress (1924-1961)
  • Gloria Leonardb. 1940USnot in their usual nameAmerican pornographic film actress; feminist publisher & activist (1940-2014)
  • Madeline Kahnb. 1942USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer (1942-1999)
  • Oprah Winfreyb. 1954USnot in their usual nameAmerican talk show host, actress, producer, and author (born 1954)
  • Gail Bermanb. 1956USAmerican businesswoman
  • Gail O'Gradyb. 1963USAmerican actress (born 1963)
  • Gail Deversb. 1966USAmerican athletics competitor, sprinter, hurdler
  • Gail Simoneb. 1974USAmerican comic book writer
  • Gail Kimb. 1977CACanadian professional wrestler, model and actress

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).

Evidence●

Attested in 68 sources across 35 countries.

Official registers attesting Gail
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020162K#335
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20203.5K#335
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020001.1K#21,553
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020201.1K#24,761
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010721#31,994
GY GuyanaGuyana — Official List of Electors July 20252025287#321
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—209#16,009
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—209#15,962
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—102#15,577
ES SpainINE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—92#7,476
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—88#8,447
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—84#9,624

Reference works 5

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 687 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Gail?
We estimate roughly 332 thousand people bear Gail (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.
In which country does Gail have the most bearers?
Gail is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled gael.
Where is Gail most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Gail is densest in Slovenia — about 1 in 676 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.
How common is Gail compared with other names?
In Argentina, Gail is the 366th most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.
Is Gail a male or female name?
Gail is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
What does the name Gail mean?
Recorded meaning: English short form of Abigail, from Hebrew Avigayil ‘my father is joy’.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/gail

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Gail” — the 366th most common given name in Argentina. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Gail parses inside a full name →