Look up another surname
The gill Surname

gill Name Meaning and History

  1. English: from a short form of the personal names Giles, Julian, or William. In theory the name would have a soft initial when derived from the first two of these, and a hard one when from William or from the other possibilities discussed in 2–4 below. However, there has been much confusion over the centuries.
  2. Northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a ravine or deep glen, Middle English gil(l), Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.
  3. Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish), Mac Giolla (Irish), patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill. The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin, and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England.
  4. Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall 1).
  5. Norwegian: habitational name from any of three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil, from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.
  6. Dutch: cognate of Giles.
  7. Jewish (Israeli): ornamental name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’.
  8. German: from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegidius (see Gilger).
  9. Indian (Panjab): Sikh name, probably from Panjabi gil ‘moisture’, also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Learn the meaning and history of your first name
Share this page with friends and family

14–Day Free Trial

gill Family Facts

Distribution of gill Families in the US in 1920
Number of gill families
 405-808
 136-404		 1-135
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.co.uk from the 1920 US Federal Census records

Click on a state to view gill census records

Year

How is this helpful?

  • You can decide where (in which states) to start searching for gill records.
  • You can see how gill families moved over time by selecting different Census years.

What do I do next?

The information for this map came from Ancestry.co.uk’s US Federal Census Collection.
  • Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, residence and occupation.
  • Click here to search gill census records.

Search for gill records

Hide AdvancedShow AdvancedClear Form

Search

Name

Birth

e.g. 16 Jan 1923
+/-
e.g. Reading, England, United Kingdom

Death

e.g. 16 Jan 1923
+/-
e.g. Reading, England, United Kingdom
Give priority to    

Only records from the UK and Ireland
Tell us more to get better results Search

More resources for your gill family history

Start your FREE family tree. Who will you discover?

A family tree is the easiest way to start discovering your family history. To begin, just enter whatever you know and we'll use that to try and find more information for you.

Begin your family tree with your name:

Learn more about family trees.

Member Connections

More Tools and Resources