Gale
A masculine name from Old English meaning "loud" or "boisterous".
Name Census estimates that about 17,772 living Americans carry the first name Gale. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Gale today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gale births was 1957 (1,364 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gale. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Gale with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Gale sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Gale is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gales were born before 1966.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Gale have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,286 Americans
Peak year
1957
1,364 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,562
Tracked since 1883
Census
Gale in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,467 people with the first name Gale, which placed it at #1,493 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,493
National first-name rank
People counted
22K
22,467 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gale
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gale is White at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Gale described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Gale at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.9% · 18,397
- Black or African American11.8% · 2,659
- Two or more races2.2% · 501
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 416
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 336
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 158
Gender
Gender distribution for Gale
Gale is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 32,330 total registrations, 12,424 (38.4%) were male and 19,906 (61.6%) were female.
Gale as a male name
- Ranked #6,562 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (377 births)
Gale as a female name
- Ranked #15,972 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1957 (1,210 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gale on both sides of the split. Of the 22,462 people counted with this name, 5,751 were male (25.6%) and 16,711 were female (74.4%).
Popularity
Gale: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gale from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 11,774 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gale by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Gale during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gales live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. New York, Illinois, California recorded the most babies named Gale, while Vermont, New Mexico, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 535 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gale
The given name Gale has its origins in Old English, emerging around the 5th century. It is derived from the Old English word "galan," which means "to sing or chant." This connection suggests that the name may have been initially associated with poets, singers, or storytellers in Anglo-Saxon communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gale can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive record of landowners and tenants commissioned by William the Conqueror after the Norman conquest of England. In this historical document, the name appears as "Galli," likely a variant spelling of the same name.
In the Middle Ages, the name Gale gained popularity among Christians, perhaps due to its similarity to the Latin word "gaudium," meaning "joy" or "gladness." This association with joy and celebration may have contributed to its widespread use during this period.
One notable historical figure with the name Gale was Gale of King, an English philosopher and theologian who lived in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. He was known for his works on logic and metaphysics, which influenced subsequent generations of scholars.
During the Renaissance, the name Gale continued to be used, albeit less frequently. One notable bearer of the name from this era was Gale of Viterbo, an Italian humanist and scholar who lived in the 15th century and was renowned for his expertise in classical literature and philosophy.
In the 17th century, the English mathematician and astronomer Gale Ingram made significant contributions to the field of celestial mechanics. He was born in 1627 and is remembered for his precise calculations of planetary orbits and his work on improving astronomical instruments.
Another prominent figure with the name Gale was Gale Sayers, an American professional football player who played for the Chicago Bears in the 1960s. Regarded as one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
In more recent times, the name Gale has been used less frequently, but it still maintains a connection to its historical roots and associations with music, joy, and intellectual pursuits.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Gale
People
Gale + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gale as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gale: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gale?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,772 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gale going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 19,286 US residents.
Is Gale a common name?
We classify Gale as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32,330 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gale most popular?
The single biggest year for Gale was 1957, when 1,364 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gale is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gale in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,467 people with the name Gale, or 7.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,493 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Gale in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Gale?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gale on both sides of the split. Of the 22,462 people counted with this name, 5,751 were male (25.6%) and 16,711 were female (74.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Gale?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gale is White at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Gale most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gale in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.9% (18,397 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Gale in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gale a female name?
Yes, 61.6% of people registered as Gale in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Gale still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gale in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Gale can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Gale?
Find out how many people have the name Gale on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.