girl's name
Gia
JEE-ah
- Origin Italian
- Gender Girl
- Letters 3
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 26,118
the United States
#287
2025 births
Gia is a girl's name, the Italian short form of Gianna, meaning God is gracious. It charts in all seven markets we track and reached its highest recorded level in 2024, which few names in this band manage on both counts.
- Gia is a name of Italian origin.
- Peaked in 2024, when 1,195 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 3,101 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1957.
Gia over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1950s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1950s | 112 |
| 1960s | 933 |
| 1970s | 948 |
| 1980s | 696 |
| 1990s | 847 |
| 2000s | 3,746 |
| 2010s | 8,729 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 6,689 |
What Gia means
Gia means God is gracious. It carries the meaning of Gianna, the Italian feminine of Giovanni, rather than having a separate sense of its own.
Where Gia comes from
Gia is clipped from Gianna, the Italian feminine of Giovanni, which descends from the Hebrew Yochanan — a form of the divine name joined to a root meaning to be gracious. The same Hebrew name produced John, Jean, Juan, Ivan and Sean, so Gia sits at the end of one of the most widely branched name families in Europe. It is sometimes given a separate Greek derivation from ge, earth, which would make it a relative of Gaia, but the Italian route is the documented one and the Greek reading appears to be a later attempt to find meaning in the short form directly.
Gia in use
Gia ranks 186th in Northern Ireland on 10 births, 261st in Ireland, 286th in Scotland, 287th in the United States on 1,069, 293rd in England and Wales on 154 and 859th in France — all seven markets. It peaked in the United States in 2024, when 1,195 babies were registered, and is rising in our data. Our records carry it from 1957 across 26,118 lifetime births.
How popular is Gia?
In 2025, Gia was given to 1,069 babies in the United States, ranking #287 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Gia is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Gia
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Gia also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Gia over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Gia in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Gia
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Gia — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Gia
What does the name Gia mean?
God is gracious, carried through from Gianna.
Is Gia short for Gianna?
Yes, though it is widely used as a full name and now charts in markets where Gianna does not.
Is Gia related to Gaia?
No. The Greek earth derivation is sometimes given but the documented route is Italian, through Gianna.
How popular is Gia?
186th in Northern Ireland and 287th in the United States, at its highest recorded level.
Is Gia a girl's or a boy's name?
Gia is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Gia a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Gia currently ranks #186 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.