Gil
A short surname with several possible roots, most often treated as a clipped or nickname form rather than a single fixed family name.
The #1,353 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,824 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is tricky because "Gil" can be a shortened form of several different older names or words. In English records it may stand for a nickname or reduced form related to Gilbert and other names beginning with Gil-, while in Scandinavian place-names Old Norse gil means "ravine" or "gully." In Scottish and Irish contexts, Gil- can also reflect Gaelic naming elements that were later shortened or Anglicized. Because the historical sources do not point to one single origin for all bearers, the safest reading is that Gil is a compact surname with multiple independent origins.
History
The form appears in medieval and later records as a short name element and as part of longer surnames, but it is not easy to separate the surname from the widespread given-name prefix Gil-. In some families it may have arisen by abbreviation from names like Gilbert; in others it may be connected to local or topographic names influenced by Old Norse or Celtic usage. The 19th-century sources cited here do not give a clean, standalone derivation for all bearers of Gil, so its history is best treated as mixed and regional rather than uniform.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Old Norse word gil that can lie behind some surname elements also survives in place-names meaning a steep ravine or narrow valley.
From the historical record
“GIL 128 GIL GIFFORD. GIFFARD. The old his- torical Gifl'ards of Normandy and England descended from the De Bollebecs, who were”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom