Gayle

Where Gayle comes from

The dictionaries list Gayle as a given name — a male given name transferred from the surname — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1891
    First appearance
    #943 among girls, 9 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1909
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1943
    Gayle Hunnicutt born
    American actress
  4. 1949
    Gayle Rubin born
    American cultural anthropologist, activist, and feminist
  5. 1951
    Peak, #124
    2,826 babies named Gayle — more than any year before or since.
  6. 1962
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #250.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Gayle Rubin · American cultural anthropologist, activist, and feminist, born 1949
  • Gayle Hunnicutt · American actress, 1943–2023
  • Gayle Forman · American young-adult fiction author, born 1970
  • Gayle King · American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, born 1954
  • Gayle Broughton · New Zealand rugby union player, born 1996

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.