Giles
A surname from the medieval personal name Giles, ultimately from the Greek name Aegidius, meaning “young goat” or “goat-skin shield.”
The #849 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 7,605 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Giles is a surname that arose from the common medieval given name Giles. That personal name goes back to Latin Aegidius, from Greek aigidion, meaning “young goat,” and was popularized in medieval Europe by Saint Giles. In English surname use, it usually began as a patronymic, marking someone as “the son or descendant of Giles.”
History
The name became widespread in England after the Middle Ages because Giles was a familiar baptismal name in both clerical and lay use. The surname appears in many early records in a variety of spellings, and later it also produced forms such as Gilks and other local variants. In some areas it became especially common enough to generate clusters of bearers in parish records and land documents.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same saint’s name appears in many English place-names, including St Giles in London and numerous parish churches dedicated to St Giles.
From the historical record
“gold ? GILES. The baptismal name. GILKS. See Gilbert. This name was so common in the northern part of Oxford- shire in the last century, that, on the enclo- sure, in 1774-, of some lands in the parish of Swalcliffe, it was necessary to describe six claimants thus : — 1. Thomas Addcrbury Gilks (iirobably from some…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom