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Girl

Gail

Gail means "Father's joy" and comes from Old English, giving it real etymological depth as a girl's name. It belongs mostly to the 1950s at this point. These days, it is familiar to most people. The registry counts around 210,047 U.S. births under this name going back to 1900.

Old EnglishDiminutive of Abigail
Old EnglishFather's joy
Births by decade
1900s
414
1910s
2,252
1920s
3,462
1930s
17,720
1940s
55,156
1950s
86,919
1960s
33,341
1970s
7,380
1980s
2,234
1990s
753
2000s
282
2010s
134
Peaked in the 1950s · 210,047 total U.S. births since 1900