Giselle - Meaning of Giselle

What does Giselle mean?

[ 2 syll. gi-sel-le, gis-e-lle ] The baby girl name Giselle is pronounced JHihZEHL in English or ZHiyZEHL in French †. Giselle has its origins in the Germanic language, and it is used largely in English and French. The name is associated with the medieval custom where rival noblemen would send their children to be raised at each other's court, as a pledge to ensure peace and friendship between them; the child would then be known as a gisil (meaning 'pledge, hostage').

The name Giselle is used to a great extent; it has 37 variant forms that are used in English and foreign languages. English variant forms include Ghisele, Ghisella, Ghislain (also used in Dutch), Giesell, Gisela (also used in German, Italian, and Spanish), Giselda, Giseli, Gisella (also used in French and Italian), Gisèle (also used in French), Gisilberhta, Gisli, Gissela, Gissell, Gissella, Gizel, Gysel, Gysell, Gyselle, Jiselle, and Jizelle. Other English forms include the diminutive form Gigi (also used in French), and the spelling variants Gisel, Gisele (also used in French), Gisell, Gisselle, and Gizelle (also used in Czech).

Variant forms of Giselle used in foreign languages include Ghislaine (French), Gisa (German), Gisal (Welsh), Giza (Czech), Gizela (Czech, Latvian, and Polish), Gizella (Hungarian), Gizi (Hungarian), Gizike (Hungarian), Gizus (Hungarian), Gjuzel (Russian), and Isel (German).

Giselle is popular as a baby name for girls, and it is also perceived to be rather trendy. The name has been increasing in popularity since the 1980s; prior to that, it was of only infrequent use. At the modest height of its usage in 2007, 0.123% of baby girls were named Giselle. It ranked at #134 then. In 2011, it ranked at #152 with a usage of 0.106%, and it was the most popular within all girl names in its group. 6 times more girls were named Giselle than the next ranked name, Gisselle, in 2011.

Baby names that sound like Giselle include Gisèle, Jizelle, Geela, Gela, Geli, Gelya, Gila, Gili, Gilli, Gillie, Gilly, Gisal, Gisel, Gisele, Gisell, Gisselle, Giulie, Gjuzel, Gysel, and Gysell.

† Pronunciation for Giselle: JH as in "joy (JH.OY)" ; IH as in "it (IH.T)" ; Z as in "zoo (Z.UW)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)" ; L as in "lay (L.EY)" ; ZH as in "beige (B.EY.ZH" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"