Gayla
A feminine name of English origin meaning "festive, joyous".
Name Census estimates that about 7,928 living Americans carry the first name Gayla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Gayla today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gayla births was 1954 (617 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gayla. 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.
People living today
7.9K
~ 1 in 43,233 Americans
Peak year
1954
617 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
1961 SSA rank
#3,787
Tracked since 1921
Census
Gayla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,055 people with the first name Gayla, which placed it at #2,626 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
#2,626
National first-name rank
People counted
9.1K
9,055 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gayla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayla is White at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Gayla 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 Gayla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.7% · 7,667
- Black or African American8.1% · 733
- Two or more races3.3% · 302
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 158
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 147
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 48
Gender
Gender distribution for Gayla
Out of the 10,844 babies given the name Gayla since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Gayla as a male name
- Ranked #3,787 in 1961
- 6 male births in 1961
- Peak: 1961 (6 births)
Gayla as a female name
- Ranked #15,242 in 2014
- 6 female births in 2014
- Peak: 1954 (617 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,065 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Gayla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gayla from the 1920s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 3,917 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
Gayla 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 Gayla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gaylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois recorded the most babies named Gayla, while Massachusetts, South Carolina, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 216 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gayla
The name Gayla is a variant of the feminine name Gail, which has its origins in the French language. The French name Gail is derived from the Germanic name Gaillard, which means "high-spirited" or "lively."
The name Gayla gained popularity in the United States during the 20th century, particularly in the mid-20th century. It is believed that the spelling Gayla emerged as an Americanized version of the French name Gail.
While there are no known historical references to the name Gayla in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the name has been borne by several notable individuals throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Gayla is Gayla Peevey (1943-2021), an American singer and songwriter who was a member of the 1960s pop group The Osmond Brothers. Peevey co-wrote several hit songs for the group, including "One Bad Apple."
Another notable figure named Gayla was Gayla Raphel (born 1952), an American former professional tennis player. Raphel achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 12 in singles and won three singles titles on the WTA Tour.
In the field of literature, Gayla Drummond (1938-2020) was an American author and poet. She published several collections of poetry, including "The Body Remembers" and "The Flesh of My Salt."
Gayla J. Bassior (born 1949) is an American businesswoman and former chairwoman of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company. She served as Disney's chairwoman from 2004 to 2007.
Gayla Nicholson (born 1962) is an American former professional basketball player. She played in the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) and was a member of the United States women's national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
People
Gayla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gayla 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
Gayla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gayla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,928 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gayla 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 43,233 US residents.
Is Gayla a common name?
We classify Gayla as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,844 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gayla most popular?
The single biggest year for Gayla was 1954, when 617 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gayla is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gayla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,055 people with the name Gayla, or 3.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,626 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 Gayla 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 Gayla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,065 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Gayla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayla is White at 84.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Gayla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gayla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.7% (7,667 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 Gayla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gayla a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Gayla 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 Gayla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gayla 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 Gayla 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 called Gayla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.