Giles
A masculine given name of Old French origin meaning "Pledged to protection".
Name Census estimates that about 2,290 living Americans carry the first name Giles. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Giles today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giles births was 1918 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giles. 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 Giles with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 149,674 Americans
Peak year
1918
86 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,104
Tracked since 1880
Census
Giles in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,408 people with the first name Giles, which placed it at #6,618 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
#6,618
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,408 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giles
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giles is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Giles 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 Giles at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 1,963
- Black or African American11.2% · 270
- Two or more races2.5% · 61
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 52
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 44
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 18
Popularity
Giles: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giles from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 685 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giles 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 Giles during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Giles' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. Virginia, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Giles, while West Virginia, Iowa, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giles
The name Giles has its origins in the ancient Greek language and is derived from the word 'Aegidius', meaning 'young goat' or 'kid'. It is believed to have been a Greek surname that later became a given name when it spread to other parts of Europe.
The name gained popularity in France, where it was anglicized to 'Giles'. It then made its way to England during the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. In medieval England, Giles was a relatively common name, particularly among the nobility and upper classes.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Giles can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a companion of St. Paul. Another notable historical figure was Giles of Assisi, a 13th-century Italian friar and one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi.
In the 12th century, a legendary figure known as St. Giles became popular in France and England. He was believed to be an Athenian hermit who lived in the 7th century and was known for his kindness towards animals, particularly a wounded deer that he sheltered in his cave.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Giles. One of the earliest was Giles of Viterbo (1469-1532), an Italian Renaissance scholar, philosopher, and cardinal. Giles Fletcher the Elder (1549-1611) was an English poet and ambassador to Russia, while Giles Fletcher the Younger (1588-1623) was his son and also a poet.
In the 17th century, Giles Firmin (1614-1697) was an English physician and writer, known for his controversial religious views. Giles Jacob (1686-1744) was an English writer and lexicographer, best known for his work "The Compleat Parish-Officer".
Giles Corey (1611-1692) was a famous figure in the Salem Witch Trials, where he was accused of witchcraft and ultimately pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea. Giles Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) was a British writer and biographer, known for his innovative approach to biography writing.
People
Giles + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giles 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
Giles: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giles?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,290 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giles 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 149,674 US residents.
Is Giles a common name?
We classify Giles as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,719 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giles most popular?
The single biggest year for Giles was 1918, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giles is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Giles in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,408 people with the name Giles, or 0.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,618 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 Giles 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 Giles?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giles leans strongly male. 2,381 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 25 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Giles?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giles is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Giles most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Giles in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (1,963 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 Giles in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giles a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Giles in the SSA data are male. 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 Giles still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giles 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 Giles 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 Giles?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.