A male name. Latin Aegidius, Egidius, derivative of Greek αίγίδιον ‘kid’. Aegidius became in French Gidie, Gide (which survives as a surname) and then Gilles, Gile, and Gire. St Giles is said to have been a 6th-C Athenian who fled to France to escape the veneration aroused by the miracles he performed. He is the patron saint of cripples and beggars, and has 162 churches dedicated to him in this country. Medieval records of the name are usually of the Latin form Egidius, but there are a few examples of the vernacular. It was sometimes turned back into Latin as Gilo or Gilius. It was used as a woman’s name as well as a man’s.

Egidius Curia Regis Rolls 1199-1220, Hundred Rolls 1273. Gilo, Gilonem Curia Regis Rolls 1199. Gylis Feudal Aids 1284. Egidius or Gilius Hundred Rolls 1273. Egidia or Gilia Curia Regis Rolls 1201.

This English and Scottish name, popular enough at one time to have become a surname though now, as a ‘Christian’, finding ever smaller favour in England, is of doubtful origin. Probably it is referable to aegis—the aegis or aigis of Pallas Athene, whose shield was originally the skin of an αίξ (aix) or goat—and, if so, must mean ‘with the aegis’ and therefore, via French Gilles, ‘stock name for a stage simpleton’ (Weekley, W. & N.), a contraction of Ægidius, the name, as it happens, of a mid C7-early 8 saint who, born a Greek, ‘passed his life as a hermit in the South of France’ and who is known as St. Giles. But it may be a corruption of Latin Julius, which is—at least, on the face of it—etymologically more likely; or the Celtic Giolla, ‘a servant’ (cf. Gildas, q. v.); or even the Teutonicgils, ‘a pledge,’ as in Gilbert, q. v. (Yonge).

Bailey and others derive this name from Ægidius, from Greek αιγος, a goatskin. Others translate Ægidius, ‘with the ægis.’ Αιδιον is a kid, a young goat; from αιξ, αιγος; and αιγιδιον is also an adjective. I have no doubt that Giles is often derived from Julius.

Greek (masculine) - A shield.

A Greek name, meaning: A shield bearer: a young goat.