Gail
Gail is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 17 births. Its best rank was 36th, in 1951.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 170.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 19519,886 births
- Best rank
- #36in 1951
- Since 1881
- 210,681people given the name
The story in the numbers
201,730 girls have been named Gail in the United States since 1881, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1951, with 9,886 births — 0.55% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 17 births in 2024, against 9,886 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1953, and the 1950s alone account for 42%. It has spent 104 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 25 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 8,951 boys have also been given it, 4.2% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Gail | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 101 | |
| 1890s | 287 | |
| 1900s | 291 | |
| 1910s | 1,216 | |
| 1920s | 1,746 | |
| 1930s | 15,854 | |
| 1940s | 53,139 | |
| 1950s | 85,619 | |
| 1960s | 32,873 | |
| 1970s | 7,138 | |
| 1980s | 2,171 | |
| 1990s | 752 | |
| 2000s | 284 | |
| 2010s | 169 | |
| 2020s | 90 |
In 1951, its biggest year
Gail was the 36th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1951 were Linda, Mary, Patricia, Deborah and Barbara. See all of 1951.
Names that rose and fell with Gail
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Gaylepeak 1951
- Sherrilpeak 1953
- Galepeak 1957
- Gwendapeak 1952
- Marciapeak 1951
- Glendapeak 1950
- Glindapeak 1951
- Dianepeak 1955
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.