The Baby Name Wizard

Reader Contributions

Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Gillian!

Comments and insights on the name Gillian: | Edit

I'm a Gillian. I pronounce it with a hard G sound. Everyone insists on trying the J sound out first, sometimes I correct them, sometimes I don't. Just depends on my mood. If it is someone I'll never see again, I let it slide.

- Just a comment on this - a "hard G sound" does sound like "J" - a soft G sound like the sound in "A fish has gills" might be what you meant.

I always spell this name with a "G", even though most including my cousin spell it with a J. She gets so exsaperated when I give her a b-day card or something and it is spelled with a G and not a J. It looks so much prettier with a G.

Personal experiences with the name Gillian: | Edit

My Name is Gillian and everywhere i go people try to say gill - ian with the soft g sound but i like my name no one in my class has that name!

Nicknames for Gillian: | Edit

Jill, Gilly, Gilly Bean, Gigi

Meanings and history of the name Gillian: | Edit

Irish

Famous real-life people named Gillian: | Edit

Gillian Anderson, American actress
Gillian Welch, American singer/songwriter
Gillian Murphy, principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre
Gillian Jacobs, American actress
Jillian Michaels, Fitness, Personal Trainer, Actress "Biggest Loser"

Gillian in song, story & screen: | Edit

Gillian Boardman is a central character in Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land.
Gillian Owens in the 1998 movie Practical Magic
Gillian Foster is the lead female role on FOX's "Lie to Me," playing a psychiatrist and deception expert.
Jilly Coppercorn (aka Jillian Carter) is one of the lead female characters in Charles de Lint's urban fantasty Newford series
Gillian Lennox (Harman), a witch character from the Night World series by L.J. Smith.