Gail
Pronounced G EY1 L (ARPABET)
- 1 syllable
- Peaked 1951
- 144 years in use
- 4 spellings
How popular is Gail?
Gail is a girls' name, and first appears in 1881. It has been given to 284,559 children — the 155th most common girls' name on record.
It is still recorded, but barely: 335 births across the past decade, against a peak of 13,578 in a single year. That peak was in 1951.
Four other spellings are counted in that total — Gayle, Gale, Gaile and one more — because they are pronounced identically.
Spelling variants
These spellings sound identical to Gail and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.
- Gayle
- Gale
- Gaile
- Gael
Nicknames
Gail is itself a short form of Abigail.
Characteristics
- 1 syllable
Phonetic detail
- Pronunciations:
- G EY1 L
- Stress pattern:
- 1
- Syllables:
- 1
Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.
Names like Gail
Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.
Sibling names for Gail
Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.
Frequently asked questions
- How popular is the name Gail?
- Gail ranks 155th among girls' names in US records, with 284,559 births since 1881. Over the past decade it accounts for 335.
- Is Gail a unisex name?
- No. Gail is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
- When was Gail most popular?
- 1951, when 13,578 children were given the name. It has been in use for 144 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
- How else is Gail spelled?
- Gayle, Gale, Gaile, Gael. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.