Gill Family History
Gill Name Meaning
English and Scottish: in northern England and Scotland sometimes from Middle English Gille Old Norse Gilli which is of Irish (Gaelic) origin (see below) and pronounced with a hard g. As a personal name it is not found after c. 1200. English and Scottish: topographic name from Middle English gille ‘deep glen ravine’ (Old Norse (Norwegian) gil) pronounced with a hard g. The term is found mainly in northwestern England where Norwegian Vikings settled. English: from a short form of Middle English Gilliam a borrowing of Guillaume a Central French form of William (see Gilliam ) which is also attested in pet forms such as Gillot and Gilmin (see Gillett Gilman ). This name will have been pronounced with a hard g. English: from the Middle English personal name Gille a pet form of Gillian usually a female name but occasionally male. It also gave rise to the surnames Jill Gell and Jell and was pronounced with a soft g hence the spellings with J-. English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Gille a variant of Giles Scottish Irish and Manx: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish) Mac Giolla (Irish) patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill . The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England. It is also a Manx surname meaning ‘son of the lad (i.e. servant)’.7: Scottish and Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall ).8: Norwegian: habitational name from any of the three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.9: Dutch: cognate of Giles .10: Jewish (Israeli): artificial name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’.1 German: from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegilius a later form of Latin Aegidius (see Giles ). This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).1 Polish and German: variant or a Germanized form of Polish Gil ‘bullfinch’.1 Indian (Punjab): Sikh name probably from Punjabi gil ‘moisture’ also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
