Gill

An Irish surname of Antrim, Dublin, Galway, Mayo, and Sligo. In the 2010 US census it was carried by 74,948 people, the 435th most common surname in the country.

Gill is the anglicised form of three distinct Irish names. Some you can hear in the English name; others look and sound nothing like it, and were simply swapped for it.

Mac An Ghaill. This family stood in Co. Tipperary.

Mac An Ghoill

Mac Giolla

Where the name comes from

Mac an Ghoill is son of the foreigner, from gall, and it was the Irish surname given to the descendants of some of the early Anglo-Norman settlers. There were families of it in every province.

Mac an Ghaill is the same name in a different accent, and it is the Irish name assumed by the Stapletons of Co. Tipperary. Mac Giolla, on its own, is simply a shortened form of some longer surname beginning that way.

The Giant's Causeway at twilight with wet hexagonal basalt columns stretching to the sea and long exposure blurred waves
The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim

The Gill counties, photographed

Antrim

The Antrim coast road runs about 25 miles between the cliffs and the sea, with nine glens coming down to it. The rock is basalt, the same flow that formed the Giant's Causeway. Scotland is 12 miles off at the narrowest point and visible on a clear day.

The iconic Dark Hedges beech tree tunnel near Armoy in County Antrim with intertwined branches forming a brooding canopyThe Dark Hedges, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim Long exposure of Pan's Rock with its footbridge at dawn on the Antrim Causeway Coast, silky water and blurred clouds, Rathlin Island on the horizonPan's Rock, Co. Antrim Co. Antrim

Dublin

Dublin is a county as well as a city. The bay has Howth at the north end and Killiney Hill at the south, the Muglins are a pair of rocks off Dalkey, and the Dublin Mountains start about half an hour from the city centre.

Moonlight reflecting on the sea near the Muglins lighthouse off Dalkey Island, Dublin, with the Kish light on the horizonThe Muglins by Moonlight II Co. Dublin Long exposure panoramic view of the White Rock swimming platform at Killiney Bay, Dublin, floating in misty high-tide watersThe White Rock, Killiney Bay, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin Heron fishing at dawn on the Dublin coast — fine art wildlife photograph by Peter CoxHeron, Co. Dublin Co. Dublin

Galway

Connemara takes up the west of the county: the Twelve Bens, blanket bog, and fields walled off into very small squares. The Aran Islands sit at the mouth of Galway Bay. The Gaeltacht starts a few miles west of Galway city.

Enormous waves sending spray over 30-metre sea cliffs at Poll an tSeidein on Inis Meain, Aran Islands at sunsetPoll an tSéideáin, Inis Meáin, Aran Islands, Co. Galway Co. Galway The rusting Plassey shipwreck on Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, seen from above with the Atlantic Ocean beyondThe Plassey, Inis Oirr, Aran Islands, Co. Galway Co. Galway

Mayo

Achill is the largest island off the Irish coast and is joined to the mainland by a bridge. Clew Bay is full of drumlins that were drowned when the sea rose, which is where the story about an island for every day of the year comes from. Croagh Patrick stands over the south side of the bay. Mayo's population is still less than half what it was before the Famine.

Black and white view across Doo Lough towards Ben Gorm and mountains, Co. Mayo, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxDoo Lough, Co. Mayo Co. Mayo Black and white view of Dun Briste sea stack from a sea cave, Co. Mayo, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxDún Briste from the Cave Co. Mayo

Sligo

Benbulben is a limestone plateau with its sides cut away by ice, standing flat-topped over the plain. Knocknarea has a cairn on top, thought to be a passage tomb and never excavated. Strandhill and Mullaghmore get some of the biggest surf in Europe. Yeats is buried at Drumcliffe below Benbulben.

Mullaghmore, Co. SligoMullaghmore, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo Ruined cottage on a blustery day in the Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo, Ireland, fine art landscape photograph by Peter CoxCottage, Ox Mountains, Co. Sligo Co. Sligo

All Antrim prints · All Dublin prints · All Galway prints · All Mayo prints · All Sligo prints

Notable bearers

Theodore Nicholas Gill (1837-1914), writer, zoologist, and biologist.

David Gill (1843-1914), university teacher, photographer, and astronomer.

Eric Gill (1882-1940), writer, painter, and artist.

Orlando Gill (born 2000), association football player.

Mahi Gill (born 1975), actor.

About this page

The counties on this page are where the name was thickest on the ground in Ireland a century and a half ago, not a claim about any one family. Names moved around inside the country as much as they left it. The photographs are mine, made in the counties named.

More Irish surnames: King · Reynolds · Ford · Hunt · Hart · Burke · Banks · May · Hopkins · Leonard · Moran · Thornton

How common the name was

In 1890, 62 births were registered under Gill in Ireland, most of them in Antrim, Dublin, Galway, Longford, Mayo, Sligo, and Tyrone.

Connacht 27
Leinster 20
Ulster 10
Munster 5
Ireland 62

Longford and Tyrone are the ones I haven't worked in.