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Difficult to say why the name Gael saw such a surge in popularity in the US over the past 10 years. This kind of thing is usually due to a celebrity, but the only one I can find is Gael García Bernal. He would fit, but he was mostly active in Mexico. Perhaps due to The Motorcycle Diaries (film), but it is hard to believe that the trend is due to that. An alternative explanation would be that the name is contained in an ethnic or racial subgroup in the US, either Hispanic (again due to Gael García Bernal?) or African American (just a wild guess, as there seem to be a disproportionate number of French football players called Gael who are black since about the year 2000)? Another possibility is Hebrew (Isareli, Jewish), perhaps an unrelated Hebrew name גאל "redeemed", or "redeemer"?[1] (Gael Margulies is spelled גאל מרגוליס, but this is more likely a transliteration of the French name than a genuinely Hebrew one)? But why does it only show up in statistics now? --dab (𒁳) 11:12, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
Actually, it is possible that "Gael" as now popular in the US may be the Hebrew name גאל which was formerly transliterated as Gall or Gal, but apparently is now also spelled Gael (as evidenced by Gael Margulies). Perhaps there is more than one factor at play contributing to the huge peak in popularity of "Gael", viz. a number of unrelated names with the same spelling/anglicization, which may mean the peak was triggered by a coincidence. But this needs more research. Of course people will always also think it means "a Gael", so perhaps the name also sees a surge among "Celtic identity" people. The online "baby name" sites do not yet seem to have picked up on the trend, but I find this,
- babynames.com "Irish/Scottish person (Gaelic). Also a form of Gail, a short form of Abigail"
- gurgle.com "Irish: Joyful. Abbreviation of Abigail. Gael is a term for descendants of the ancient Celts in Scotland: Ireland and the Isle of Man."
Got to love the "gurgle.com" one which just throws all hypotheses in a heap (Middle English gaile, Breton Gael; English (not Irish) Gael "a Gael"; short form of Abigail) and calls that heap "Irish". --dab (𒁳) 11:34, 3 February 2014 (UTC)