Gayle
A feminine English name meaning "a gale or wind" of French origin.
Name Census estimates that about 39,331 living Americans carry the first name Gayle. It is a predominantly female name (92.5% of registrations). The average person named Gayle today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gayle births was 1951 (2,929 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gayle. 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 Gayle with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Gayle is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gayles were born before 1967.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Gayle have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
39K
~ 1 in 8,715 Americans
Peak year
1951
2,929 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,461
Tracked since 1891
Census
Gayle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 51,629 people with the first name Gayle, which placed it at #876 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
#876
National first-name rank
People counted
52K
51,629 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gayle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayle is White at 88.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Gayle 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 Gayle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.9% · 45,888
- Black or African American6.0% · 3,095
- Two or more races1.7% · 885
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 867
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 648
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 246
Gender
Gender distribution for Gayle
Gayle leans heavily female at 92.5% of total registrations, but 4,951 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Gayle as a male name
- Ranked #6,461 in 1989
- 7 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1936 (181 births)
Gayle as a female name
- Ranked #14,005 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (2,826 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gayle leans strongly female. 49,407 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 2,218 male bearers (4.3%).
Popularity
Gayle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gayle from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 24,517 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
Gayle 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 Gayle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gayles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Gayle, while Alaska, Nevada, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,182 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Gayle
The given name Gayle has its origins in the Norman French language. It is derived from the French word "gai", meaning "joyful" or "cheerful". The name was introduced to England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when many French words and names became integrated into the English language.
Historically, the name Gayle was predominantly used as a masculine name, although it later became popular as a feminine name as well. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gayle can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of English lands conducted by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears as "Gale" in this document.
In medieval times, the name Gayle was associated with a cheerful and joyful disposition. It was often given to children in the hope that they would embody these positive qualities. During the Renaissance period, the name gained popularity across Europe, particularly in France and England.
One notable historical figure with the name Gayle was Gayle Burt (1492-1553), an English composer and musician who served as the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal during the reign of Henry VIII. Another famous Gayle was Gayle Honey (1558-1628), an English playwright and poet who was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.
In the 19th century, the name Gayle gained popularity as a feminine name, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest recorded instances of a woman named Gayle was Gayle Calvert (1822-1898), an American educator and activist who founded several schools for African American children in the post-Civil War era.
Other notable individuals with the name Gayle include Gayle Hunnicutt (1943-2004), an American actress best known for her roles in television shows like "The Rookies" and "Dallas". Gayle King (born 1954) is an American television personality and co-host of the CBS morning show "CBS Mornings".
Gayle Sayers (born 1943) is a former American football player who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977. He played for the Chicago Bears and is widely regarded as one of the greatest running backs in NFL history.
People
Gayle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gayle 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
Gayle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gayle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39,331 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gayle 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 8,715 US residents.
Is Gayle a common name?
We classify Gayle as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 66,309 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gayle most popular?
The single biggest year for Gayle was 1951, when 2,929 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gayle is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gayle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 51,629 people with the name Gayle, or 17.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #876 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 Gayle 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 Gayle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gayle leans strongly female. 49,407 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 2,218 male bearers (4.3%). 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 Gayle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gayle is White at 88.9%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Gayle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gayle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.9% (45,888 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 Gayle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gayle a female name?
Yes, 92.5% of people registered as Gayle 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 Gayle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gayle 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 Gayle 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 common is the name Gayle?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.