Gale (given name)

Gale
Pronunciation /ˈɡl/ GAYL
Gender masculine
Origin
Word/name from Gale (surname)
Look up Gale in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Gale
Pronunciation /ˈɡl/ GAYL
Gender feminine
Origin
Word/name short for Abigail
Other names
Related names Gayle,
Look up Gale in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Gale is a given name. It has seen masculine and feminine use consecutively in the United States. Gale as a man's name is from an English surname, ultimately from Middle English gaile "jovial". As a woman's name, it is a short form of the biblical name Abigail.[1]

It was almost exclusively a masculine name before 1935; in the later 1930s, it became a popular variant of the feminine name Abigail. Feminine usage surpassed masculine usage in 1940, leading to a further decline in masculine usage, and Gale was predominantly a feminine name when it peaked in popularity in the later 1950s. Its popularity decreased rapidly in the 1960s, falling below rank 1,000 in 1971. In the 1990 census, it was ranked 4,209.

People called Gale

Further information: Gail and Gael (given name)

Men

Women

Pseudonym

Fictional characters

References

See also