Giselle
A feminine name of French origin meaning "bright pledge" or "hostage".
Name Census estimates that about 48,363 living Americans carry the first name Giselle. It sits at #356 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Giselle today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Giselle births was 2007 (2,596 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Giselle. 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 Giselle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
48K
~ 1 in 7,087 Americans
Peak year
2007
2,596 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2004 SSA rank
#356
Tracked since 1949
Census
Giselle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 40,340 people with the first name Giselle, which placed it at #1,039 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
#1,039
National first-name rank
People counted
40K
40,340 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
79.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Giselle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giselle is Hispanic at 79.3%. The next largest groups are White (9.9%) and Black (5.9%). 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 Giselle 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 Giselle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino79.3% · 32,009
- White9.9% · 3,998
- Black or African American5.9% · 2,392
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 1,053
- Two or more races2.0% · 813
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 75
Gender
Gender distribution for Giselle
Out of the 49,421 babies given the name Giselle 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.
Giselle as a male name
- Ranked #8,398 in 2004
- 8 male births in 2004
- Peak: 1986 (8 births)
Giselle as a female name
- Ranked #356 in 2024
- 871 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (2,596 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giselle appears almost entirely female. Of the 40,347 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Giselle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Giselle from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 19,741 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Giselle 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 Giselle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Giselles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Giselle, while Hawaii, Mississippi, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,129 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Giselle
The name Giselle has its origins in the Germanic language. It is derived from the Old Frankish word "gisil," meaning "bright pledge" or "sacred vow." The name gained popularity in medieval France, where it was spelled as "Gisèle."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Giselle can be found in the 8th century. Giselle was the name of a Frankish noblewoman who lived during the reign of Charlemagne. She was known for her charitable works and her dedication to the Christian faith.
In the 11th century, Giselle de Merania, also known as Gisela of Bavaria, was a prominent figure in the Holy Roman Empire. She was the wife of King Stephen I of Hungary and played a significant role in the Christianization of Hungary.
During the 12th century, Giselle de Montfort was a French noblewoman and crusader. She accompanied her husband, Simon de Montfort, on the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France.
In the 19th century, the name Giselle gained renewed popularity due to the romantic ballet "Giselle," which premiered in Paris in 1841. The ballet tells the story of a peasant girl named Giselle who falls in love with a nobleman disguised as a villager.
One of the most famous people named Giselle in modern times was Giselle Bundchen, the Brazilian supermodel born in 1980. She has been one of the highest-paid models in the world and has appeared on numerous fashion magazine covers.
People
Giselle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Giselle 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
Giselle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Giselle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 48,363 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Giselle 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 7,087 US residents.
Is Giselle a common name?
We classify Giselle as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 49,421 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Giselle most popular?
The single biggest year for Giselle was 2007, when 2,596 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Giselle is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Giselle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 40,340 people with the name Giselle, or 13.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,039 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 Giselle 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 Giselle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Giselle appears almost entirely female. Of the 40,347 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 Giselle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Giselle is Hispanic at 79.3%. The next largest groups are White (9.9%) and Black (5.9%). 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 Giselle most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Giselle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.3% (32,009 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 Giselle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Giselle a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Giselle 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 Giselle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Giselle 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 Giselle 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 have the name Giselle?
See how many people have the name Giselle on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.