 Jack and Jill by Kate Greenaway, 1900. | |
| Gender | Primarily feminine |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Region of origin | England |
| Other names | |
| Variant form(s) | Juliana |
Jill is an English feminine given name, a short form of the name Gillian and Ghislaine, which in turn originated as a Middle English variant of Juliana. Jill was such a common name that it had an everygirl quality, as in the 15th century English nursery rhyme Jack and Jill.[1] By the 17th century, the name had become a term for a "common street jade," implying promiscuous sexual behavior, and declined in usage in the Anglosphere.[2] Usage of the name increased again in the 20th century. The name was most used in English-speaking countries from the 1930s to the 1970s. It is currently well-used in the Netherlands.[3]
People with the given name[edit]
- Jill Astbury, Australian researcher into violence against women
- Jill Balcon (1925–2009), British actress
- Jill S. Barnholtz-Sloan, American biostatistician and data scientist
- Jill Becker, American psychological researcher
- Jill Biden (born 1951), American educator and the First Lady of the United States
- Jill E. Brown (born 1950), African American aviator
- Jill Carroll (born 1977), American journalist
- Jill Clayburgh (1944–2010), American actress
- Jill Costello (1987–2010), American athlete and lung cancer activist
- Jill Craigie (1911–1999), British film director and writer
- Jill Craybas (born 1974), American tennis player
- Jill Dando (1961–1999), British television presenter
- Jill Dickman, Republican member of the Nevada Assembly
- Jill Dillard (born 1991), American reality TV personality
- Jill Evans (born 1959), Welsh politician
- Jill Fisch, American professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Jill Frappier (born 1944), British voice actress
- Jill Furse (1915–1944), English actress
- Jill Gascoine (1937−2020), English actress and novelist
- Jill Gibbon, British artist
- Jill Green, American dance educator and scholar
- Jill Goodacre (born 1964), American model and actress
- Jill Harris, American voice actress
- Jill Hennessy (born 1968), Canadian actress and musician
- Jill Ireland (1936–1990), British actress
- Jill Janssens (born 2003), Belgian footballer
- Jill Johnson (born 1973), Swedish singer
- Jill Jones (disambiguation), several people
- Jill Knight (1923–2022), British politician
- Jill Koshiol, American cancer epidemiologist
- Jill Martin (1938–2016), English musical theatre actress
- Jill Mellick, Jungian-oriented clinical psychologist
- Jill Morris (born 1967), British diplomat
- Jill Murphy (1949–2021), English writer and illustrator
- Jill P. Carter (born 1964), American politician
- Jill Scott (born 1972), American soul singer
- Jill W. Smith, American philanthropist
- Jill Stanley, Canadian actress who was a cast member on the Canadian sketch comedy TV series You Can't Do That on Television
- Jill St. John (born 1940), American actress
- Jill Talley (born 1962), American voice actress
- Jill Thompson (born 1966), American illustrator and write
- Jill Long Thompson (born 1952), American politician and academic
- Jill Vidal (born 1982), Hong Kong singer
- Jill Wagner (born 1979), American actress
- Jill Paton Walsh (1937–2020), English novelist and children's writer
- Jill Zarin, American television personality
- Jill Zimmerman (born 1959), computer scientist and professor at Goucher College
Fictional characters[edit]
- Jill, a character in the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill"
- Jill Foster Abbott, a character on the soap opera The Young and the Restless
- Jill Andersen, Riley's mother during the events of Disney Pixar's Inside Out. She is not named in the film itself, but rather in supplementary material.
- Genocide Jill, a serial killer and the alternate personality of Toko Fukawa from the Danganronpa series
- Jillian "Jill" Mastrano Dragomir, a character from Richelle Mead's Bloodlines (book series)
- Jill Masterson, from Goldfinger
- Jill Pembroke, a character in the American sitcom television series Charles in Charge
- Jill Pole, a main character in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
- Jill Roberts, a main character in Scream 4
- Jill Taylor, the wife of Tim Taylor from the ABC sitcom Home Improvement
- Jill Valentine, a character from the Resident Evil video games series
- Jill Warrick, the lead female character from Final Fantasy XVI
- Jill, a character in Katharine Kerr's Deverry Cycle book series
Jill as middle name[edit]
- Amy-Jill Levine (born 1956), feminist theology professor
- J. Jill Suitor, sociology professor
- Suzanne Jill Levine (born 1946), American poet and translator
- Lara Jill Miller (born 1967), American actress
References[edit]
- ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
- ^ "Full text of "Curiosities of Puritan nomenclature"". archive.org. 1880. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
- ^ Campbell, Mike. "Jill". behindthename.com. Behind the Name. Retrieved 30 December 2023.