Gillian

Where Gillian comes from

The dictionaries list Gillian as a given name — a female given name from Latin; Medieval variant of Julian and Juliana, revived and quite popular in Britain in the mid-twentieth century — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Latin
  • 3 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1922
    First appearance
    #5,009 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1968
    Gillian Anderson born
    American actress
  3. 1971
    Gillian Flynn born
    American author and critic
  4. 1999
    Peak, #303
    1,022 babies named Gillian — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2005
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #659.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Latin; Medieval variant of Julian and Juliana, revived and quite popular in Britain in the mid-twentieth century.
Namesakes
  • Gillian Anderson · American actress, born 1968
  • Gillian Flynn · American author and critic, born 1971
  • Gillian Jacobs · American film, theater and television actress, born 1982
  • Gillian Chung · Hong Kong actress and singer, born 1981
  • Gillian Armstrong · film director, born 1950

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.