This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Gill.' Either Gill, nick, of William (Guillaume), or Gill or Jill, the nick of Juliana. Both were in use for a time, but the latter finally ruled supreme, and Will quickly became the nick, of the other; v. Gillson.

Richard fil. Gille, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Gille Hulle, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Roger Gille, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Magota Gil-doghter, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Elizabethe Gylle-doghter, 1379: ibid.

Robert Gille, 1379: ibid.

(a) Local, 'at the gill' or 'ghyll,' a deep glen or ravine.

Johannes del Gill, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Magota del Gylle, 1379: ibid.

1609. Married — John Gill and Elizabeth Norman: St. Mary Aldermary (London).

(1) A tradition held by members of the Aberdeen family of this name is that they came originally from Cumberland, where at an early period they owned lands, among others the barony of Gillsland. Gilsland, one of three original baronies in Cumberland, is spelled Gillesland in 1240, and may have been the possession of one Gilli or Gille. Gilli is an old West Scandinavian personal name, borrowed at an earlier period directly from OG. gilla, 'a servant,' or from a pet form of one of the numerous Gaelic names in Gilla-, as Gillebride, Gillechrist, etc. The abbreviated form was not used by Gaels as a proper name, but such usage originated among the Vikings in the West. The surname is of great antiquity on both sides of the Rorder. Gille filius Boed was one of the witnesses to Earl David's Inquisitio concerning the lands of the church of Glasgow, a. 1124 (REG., p. 5. See further under Boed). This Gille son of Boed or Boet stands on a pedestal unique, perhaps in Scottish history, as the last Scotic chieftain to hold sway in England against the power of the Norman (Sc. Ant., XVII, p. 111). Gille filius Mercheh was one of the perambulators of the lands of Clerchetune (Clerkington near Edinburgh),c. 1241 (RPSA., P. 181). (2) A second possible and local origin is suggested by the name of Patrick del Gyle (from ON. geil or gil, "ravine, cleft') of Peeblesshire who rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II, p. 208). A payment was made to John Gill of Perth in 1328 (ER., I, p. 88), who appears as alderman there in 1330 (SCM., V, p. 10) and as John Gyl or Gylle is recorded as burgess in 1333 (Scon, p. 164—165). He may be the Johannes Gille, dominus de Torsopy, a charter witness in 1366 (RMS., I, 247). Another John Gille, a Scottish merchant in Normandy, received payment for his cargo of barley in 1369 (Bain, IV, 151). John Gylle was provost of Perth, 1389 (Milne, p. 38), Henry Gyll was burgess of Edinburgh, 1460 (Ayr, p. 35), Thomas Gill was miller in Newton Mill, 1658 (RRM., I, p. 183), Bessie Gill appears in Troquier, 1659 (Dumfries), and Margaret Gill in Coldon, 1690 (Dunkeld).

(Anglo-French-Latin-Greek) i French Gil, Gille, Latin Julius = Downy-Beard.

2 diminutive of Gillian or Jillian, French Julienne, Latin Juliana, fem, of Julianus, from Julius [Latin Julius, Greek τουλος, down, first growth of the beard] Richard son Gille.—Hundred Rolls (Anglo-French-Teut.) French Guill-e, the first com­ponent of Guillaume (v. William) or Guil- bert (v. Gilbert). Or the Old Teutonic name- stem Gil-.

(Anglo-Scand.) Dweller at a Ravine [Old Norse gil] (Celtic) an apocopated form of the Scotch Gillie=Boy, Servant [Gaelic gille = Irish giolla] Cp. Giles.

Mac an Ghoill Spelt Magill in east Ulster. This name is also often an abbreviation of one of the many names beginning with Mac Giolla. MIF 223

(1) “Ravine” in Scotland and North of England. Hence also Pickersgill, Fothergill, etc. (2) “Water” in Erse. See Gilliland.

(English) The son of the foreigner.

1. See Gilbert. 2. This word occurs singly as a surname, and also with many compounds, as Asgill, Pickersgill, Dowgill, Gilham, Gilby, &c. It either signifies a narrow pebbly rivulet in a ravine, or is a diminutive of Gilbert. According to B.L.G. the Gills of Devonshire have possessed lands in that county ever since the reign of King Stephen.

Local. A valley or woody glen; a narrow dell with a brook running through it; a small stream.

A U.S. name. Contracted from Gillet for Willet, a diminutive of Will for William.

Contracted from Giolla, or Guilley, a ‘Young Man' (see Mylchreest, Killey), are almost certainly the same name originally, the former being the earlier form. They are now used indiscriminately. It is, how­ever, quite possible that Gell is a distinct name and of Scandinavian origin. Gell is common in the Landnáma- bóc.

After King Magnus Barfod fell in battle in Ulster, in a. d, 1103.

'An Irishman named Harald Gille came forward and passed himself off for a son of that Monarch by an Irishwoman; and, after proving his descent by walking over a red-hot iron, actually became King of Norway.’ Gill was Prior of Furness in a.d. 1134; and a man of the same name was evidently an important chief in Man in the same year, as his signature was necessary to the validity of King Olaf's charter in that year. The Rev. John Quine points out that in a note to the British Museum MS. of the abbey boundaries the property of Ballagilley, now belonging to King William’s College, is called Balygil, and that it is not improbable that it was then the property of this man.

Or Gille, armorially identified in some cases with Giles or Gills. See Giles, of which it is a form.

From the Old Norse, Gils; from the German, Gilla; from the French, Gille; A Gihl; from the Danish, Gille; in the Domesday Book, Gilo, Gile, Ghil; a personal name.

Gill: (Old Norse), a ravine: Pickersgill, Fothergill.

The principal home of the Gills at the present day is in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Gills of Norton trace their pedigree 300 years hack (H. H.).