Giles Family History

English (of Norman origin): from a medieval personal name Middle English Giles or Gile a borrowing from Old French Gil(l)e(s). This is from Latin Aegidius and this presumably from Greek aigidion ‘kid young goat’ (alternatively it could be a Late Latin formation from the Latin personal name Eggius + the suffix -idius).

The personal name was widely used in France and the Low Countries partly through veneration of Saint Gilles de Provence supposedly a hermit of the 7th century near Arles; he was patron saint of cripples hence the dedication of Saint Giles Cripplegate in London though the personal name itself was less common in England than elsewhere in Europe.

See also Gilles. Irish: adopted as an Anglicized equivalent of Gaelic Ó Glaisne a County Louth name based on glas ‘green blue gray’.

French: variant of Gilles a cognate of 1 above.