Primarily a boy's name · 99% boys
Gaël is a Breton given name. Its etymology is uncertain, it may be related to the ethnonym Gael; alternatively, it may be a variant of the name Gwenhael.
From Wikipedia
In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Gael yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.
3,855 births and a fresh best-ever rank, #89 — both landed for Gael in 2024, up 113% from a decade earlier.
This name's history has a real hole in it: first recorded in 1919, then absent through the 1960s and 1970s specifically, before resuming in the 1980s and climbing steadily since.
Nearly every namesake here plays professional sport under the accented spelling Gaël — Clichy, Monfils, Kakuta — a tight cluster of contemporary French footballers and one tennis player, nothing older.
Why did you choose this name — or what does it mean to you? Approved stories appear on this page.
→ See names similar to Gael · Compare Gael with another name → · Popular names of the 2020s · Boys names starting with G
Rank is among all boys' names registered that year.
| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 5 | #4,405 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,581 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,445 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,211 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,732 |
| 1938 | 6 | #3,298 |
| 1939 | 7 | #2,945 |
| 1946 | 7 | #2,999 |
| 1947 | 16 | #1,946 |
| 1948 | 7 | #3,108 |
| 1952 | 8 | #2,947 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,293 |
| 1992 | 17 | #3,658 |
| 1993 | 17 | #3,713 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,018 |
| 1995 | 9 | #6,081 |
| 1996 | 10 | #5,676 |
| 1997 | 12 | #5,061 |
| 1998 | 11 | #5,594 |
| 1999 | 12 | #5,426 |
| 2000 | 6 | #9,490 |
| 2001 | 47 | #2,190 |
| 2002 | 246 | #722 |
| 2003 | 443 | #526 |
| 2004 | 751 | #370 |
| 2005 | 1,102 | #297 |
| 2006 | 1,026 | #314 |
| 2007 | 1,167 | #296 |
| 2008 | 1,119 | #298 |
| 2009 | 1,002 | #319 |
| 2010 | 692 | #408 |
| 2011 | 690 | #410 |
| 2012 | 2,745 | #146 |
| 2013 | 2,307 | #177 |
| 2014 | 1,809 | #213 |
| 2015 | 1,783 | #220 |
| 2016 | 2,248 | #178 |
| 2017 | 2,239 | #178 |
| 2018 | 2,931 | #132 |
| 2019 | 2,900 | #133 |
| 2020 | 3,262 | #112 |
| 2021 | 3,513 | #109 |
| 2022 | 3,509 | #104 |
| 2023 | 3,628 | #99 |
| 2024 | 3,855 | #89 |
