# Gilliland (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/gilliland/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 13,351 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,698 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 23,125 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.4% (13,170 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Gilleland |

## Etymology

Reduced Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mac Gille Fhaoláin and Irish Mac Giolla Fhaoláin (“son of the servant of (saint) Faolán”), a personal name thought to be a diminutive of Irish faol (“wolf”). Compare the surname McClellan.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Gilliland in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 94% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Gilliland in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Gilliland

- Richard Gilliland, American actor (1950–2021)
- Billy Gilliland, badminton player
- Arin Wright, American soccer player

## Similar surnames

Gilleland.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.