Gayle

Primarily a girl's name · 93% girls

Meaning

Gayle is a variant spelling of Gail, a short form of the name Abigail. Abigail is a feminine English name with Hebrew origins, meaning "my father is joy." In the Old Testament Abigail was King David's third wife, described as 'good in discretion and beautiful in form'.

From Wikipedia

Gayle first appears in the data in 1891 and has been recorded in 129 different years as a girl's name. Its single biggest year was 1951 with 2,826 babies (rank #124 that year). In 2024 it was given to 6 girls (rank #14,005). Its popularity has been fairly steady recently.

Numerology of Gayle

In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Gayle yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.

5Destiny numberThe free spiritCurious, restless, energised by change.Sum of every letter. The overall character a name carries.
4Soul urgeThe builderPractical, steady, gets results through hard work.Sum of the vowels — what's said to drive the heart.
1PersonalityThe leaderIndependent, pioneering, drawn to going first.Sum of the consonants — the outer impression.

66,309

Total babies (all years)

129

Years in the data

2,826

Peak in a single year

Popularity Over Time — Girls

Famous people named Gayle

Gayle Rubinfeminist · b. 1949
Gaylepop singer · b. 2004

Share your Gayle story

Why did you choose this name — or what does it mean to you? Approved stories appear on this page.

More popular girls' names

Names ranked near Gayle in 2024

Other girls' names starting with G

Year-by-Year Detail

Rank is among all girls' names registered that year.

Year	Babies	Rank
1891	9	#965
1893	5	#1,510
1894	8	#1,177
1895	6	#1,483
1896	9	#1,161
1897	11	#1,004
1898	10	#1,133
1899	12	#945
1900	9	#1,358
1901	9	#1,169
1902	18	#829
1904	9	#1,305
1905	20	#832
1906	12	#1,120
1907	20	#854
1908	6	#1,945
1909	18	#976
1910	15	#1,182
1911	16	#1,137
1912	35	#850
1913	39	#846
1914	55	#781
1915	84	#725
1916	107	#659
1917	127	#606
1918	125	#637
1919	113	#657
1920	102	#719
1921	106	#712
1922	102	#720
1923	87	#783
1924	107	#720
1925	100	#737
1926	98	#733
1927	96	#732
1928	119	#646
1929	108	#673
1930	139	#580
1931	167	#499
1932	225	#441
1933	239	#415
1934	476	#282
1935	705	#237
1936	717	#228
1937	720	#224
1938	803	#212
1939	843	#206
1940	1,085	#177
1941	1,007	#187
1942	1,188	#184
1943	1,423	#168
1944	1,233	#173
1945	1,491	#156
1946	1,927	#141
1947	2,485	#127
1948	2,066	#141
1949	2,293	#137
1950	2,368	#133
1951	2,826	#124
1952	2,636	#135
1953	2,666	#136
1954	2,498	#147
1955	2,483	#146
1956	2,287	#163
1957	2,190	#173
1958	1,947	#186
1959	1,826	#195
1960	1,493	#220
1961	1,448	#229
1962	1,266	#250
1963	1,108	#270
1964	1,105	#271
1965	956	#281
1966	776	#318
1967	695	#332
1968	652	#347
1969	618	#373
1970	535	#419
1971	446	#458
1972	322	#527
1973	263	#599
1974	263	#600
1975	184	#771
1976	193	#752
1977	170	#863
1978	174	#850
1979	158	#936
1980	145	#1,006
1981	146	#999
1982	149	#990
1983	112	#1,172
1984	104	#1,239
1985	97	#1,351
1986	83	#1,497
1987	79	#1,584
1988	70	#1,790
1989	71	#1,857
1990	47	#2,535
1991	48	#2,568
1992	43	#2,793
1993	42	#2,845
1994	36	#3,179
1995	30	#3,615
1996	45	#2,730
1997	31	#3,653
1998	29	#3,956
1999	18	#5,742
2000	20	#5,551
2001	30	#4,133
2002	11	#9,054
2003	10	#9,919
2004	8	#11,989
2005	9	#11,205
2006	9	#11,772
2007	7	#14,417
2008	15	#8,262
2009	11	#10,211
2010	7	#13,959
2011	6	#15,474
2012	5	#17,767
2014	7	#13,541
2016	9	#11,168
2017	11	#9,531
2018	7	#12,927
2019	5	#16,357
2021	6	#14,067
2022	10	#9,934
2023	8	#11,526
2024	6	#14,005