Gilson
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Meaning
Brazilian "-son" coinage, Gil plus the English -son; a 1960s and 70s classic of the first home-grown wave
How popular is Gilson around the world?
In the United States, Gilson is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. At the 2022 census, 132,929 people in Brazil were named Gilson, the 248th most common name, with a median age of 46.
Gilson is on the official records of Brazil, Chile and Spain.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Gilson is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Gilson appears in US Social Security baby-name records only in small numbers: never enough in any decade to draw a popularity curve.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
1 in 1,500
At the 2022 census, 132,929 people in Brazil were named Gilson, the 248th most common name, with a median age of 46.
Among people named Gilson living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
The census also counted 272 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart. People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
Chile
1 in 180,000
In Chile, 1 boy was registered as Gilson in 2021, every accent spelling counted together.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
First-name registrations with Chile’s civil registry by year of registration, 1920–2021, counted as spelling groups (Sofía, Sofia and Sofìa are one name, shown with its most-registered spelling); the registry withholds nothing, nametree keeps the groups that reached 5 registrations in some year, and shares divide by every registration of the year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación (Chile) via the guaguas package, first-name registrations 1920-2021
Spain
1 in 720,000
In Spain, 62 residents are named Gilson, ranked 12,179th among men, with a mean age of 45.6 years.
Residents of Spain on 1 January 2025. Spain publishes how old a name’s living bearers are, not a birth series, so there is no year chart. Source: INE (Spain), Censo de Población anual, 1 January 2025
Montevideo City
last on record 1977
Gilson is not on the 2011 record for Montevideo, whose registry withholds nothing, so the spelling was not given there that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births in the department of Montevideo (not all of Uruguay) by first name and year of birth, 1940–2011, from the city’s civil registry, which writes names in capitals, almost always without accents; counted as spelling groups (accent and punctuation variants merged), nothing is withheld at source, and 2012 is excluded as a partial year. Source: Servicio de Registro Civil, Intendencia de Montevideo, Partidas de Registro Civil de Montevideo (Licencia de Datos Abiertos - Uruguay); 2012 dropped as partial
Not on 13 other recordsWhy
- Not on the record in Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
- Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown.
- Not on the South Australia record for 1944 to 2017: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years.
- Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only).
- Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
Keep exploring
The Gilson deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Gilson truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Gilson fits with your family’s names and surname.
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