How popular is the baby name Gillian in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Gillian.

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Popularity of the baby name Gillian


Posts that mention the name Gillian

Baby name needed: Girl name for Saylor’s sister

A reader named Michelle has a son named Saylor Dorian. She’s expecting a baby girl in May and would like some name suggestions. She says:

We originally picked shiloh for a girl but we aren’t liking how popular it’s getting [due to a celebrity finding it first..grrr] we want a unique name that’s still ‘easy on the ears’ as in easy to get used to. I try to stay away from the too feminine popular vowel names like ava, bella, etc… though we like them we don’t want a trendy name like piper, stella, etc…

We are currently tossing around names like vega, remy…. though what i loved about shiloh was that O ending.. but we are open to whatever.

First let’s try to come up some more o-endings. How about:

Callisto
Calypso
Clio
Flo (Flora/Florence)
Jo (Josie/Josephine)
Juno		Leo (Leona)
Margot
Marlow
Meadow
Mo (Maureen)
Willow

And here are some other names that came to mind:

Audra
Briar
Darcy
Dylan
Emery
Fiona
Gillian
Greer		Heidi
Ione
Jaya
Lotus
Lyra
Mina
Morgan
Nadia		Naomi
Nova
Phoebe
Rory
Tess
Violet
Vita
Zillah

Which of the above do you like best for Saylor’s sister? What other girl names would you suggest to Michelle?

Baby name needed: Traditional name for baby girl

A reader named Liz is expecting a baby girl and she’d like some help coming up with a name. Here are some details:

  • Liz likes “traditional names that are not the type of name the person wearing it will be teased for,” such as Amalia, Charlotte, Sofia and Louisa/Louise.
  • Liz’s husband like “names that sound cute for a little kid but good for an adult,” such as Grace, Beatrice and Nathalie. (Liz doesn’t care for Beatrice/Beatrix, though.)

So far, Louise/Louisa is the only name both Liz and her husband can agree on.

Here are some other names that I thought might work:

Adele
Alice
Althea
Caroline
Celia
Claire
Clarice
Coralie
Emmeline		Genevieve
Felice
Gillian
Greta
Helena
Irene
Isabelle
Johanna
Josephine		Lavinia
Leona
Lucy
Lydia
Madeleine
Margaret
Mary
Naomi
Nicole		Pauline
Patrice
Philippa
Rosalie
Sabina
Susannah
Sylvia
Thea
Theresa

No name is immune to teasing, but I did bump Harriet, which is dangerously close to “hairy.”

What other names would you suggest to Liz?

Baby name needed: Boy name similar to William

A reader named Ashley writes:

I have a nearly 4 year old named William Benjamin, both family names. For the next child, we are considering Gillian (with a traditional J sound) for a girl. I would like another boy name that has an L in the middle, to sound similar to Will. I’ve considered Dillon, Elliot, Nolan, Nelson, Phillip. I know there must be others out there I’m not thinking of. Which one would match well?

This is a fun question. :)

Here’s a bunch of other names with an L-sound in the middle. (I left off W-names, figuring Ashley wouldn’t be interested in those.)

Alan
Albert
Alfred
Alistair
Alvin
Caleb
Calum
Calvin
Coleman
Collin
Colvin
Cullen		Delton
Delvin
Ellis
Ellsworth
Elton
Elwood
Felix
Fuller
Galen
Gilbert
Gilford
Gilman		Halbert
Halsey
Holden
Hollis
Julian
Kellen
Kelton
Kelvin
Malcolm
Malachi
Melvin
Milburn		Milford
Milton
Millard
Miller
Raleigh
Roland
Sheldon
Solomon
Salvador
Tilman
Tolbert
Volney

The names in boldface are the ones I personally like best with William. (I also think Elliot would be a great choice.)

Which name(s) do you guys like best with William? What other names would you suggest?

Celebrity baby name: Felix

Title of the TV series "The X-Files"
“The X-Files”

Actress Gillian Anderson, one of the stars of sci-fi TV series The X-Files (1993-2002), welcomed a baby boy last week.

She and her partner, Mark Griffiths, named their son Felix — which just so happens to be an anagram of “X File.”

Coincidence…?

The couple’s first child, born in 2006, was a son named Oscar.

Anderson also has a daughter, Piper Maru, with her ex-husband. (She said during a 1996 radio interview that the middle name Maru means “calm and gentle” in Polynesian and “ship” in Japanese.)

Source: Finn, Natalie. “Another Son Shines for Gillian Anderson.” E! Online 20 Oct. 2008.