Gila
Just 36 women in Poland carry it, and the records show no newborn girls given it since at least 2000. At root a Hebrew name meaning "joy".
Gila Pronunciation
Gila is pronounced GEE-lah (/ˈgila/).
What Gila means
Where Gila comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Gila comes from Hebrew. The root gil means to rejoice, and the name reads plainly as joy. Polish speakers would render it radość.
The word appears in Hebrew scripture, where gila names a burst of gladness rather than a calm contentment. Names built on this root have long belonged to Jewish families, and Gila sits among them with no diminutive and no masculine twin. It stands as it is.
For a Jewish girl carrying it, the name states its own meaning. There is no puzzle to solve, no later gloss added on top. The sense of joy is the origin itself, present from the first use.
On a Polish class register, Gila would stand out beside Zofia and Maria. Short. Two syllables. The teacher reads it once and moves on.
What stays with the bearer is the plain fact of the word: Gila means joy, and in Polish, radość.
How many people are named Gila
1 in 626218 women in Poland is named Gila. 36 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #6586 among female names.
Gila as a middle name
Gila is a first name for 36 women in Poland and a middle name for another 7, an 84/16 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2976th, between Gertrude (7) and Gitla (7).
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#2974 Freyja7
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#2975 Gertrude7
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#2976 Gila7
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#2977 Gitla7
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#2978 Giulietta7