This interesting surname is a varinat of Giles, which has two possible sources; the first is of early medieval English origin, and is from a medieval given name of which the original form was the Latin "Egotist, Egidus", derived from the Greek "aigidion", kid, young goat. The second source is from the Anglicized form of the Gaelic "O' Glasain", descendant of Glasan, a personal name derived from a diminutive of the Gaelic "glas", grey, green, blue. The name development since 1176 (see below) includes the following: Godfrey Gile (1191, Northamptonshire), William Gyles (1296, Sussex), William Giles (1317, Kent) and Nicholas Gisel (1346, Suffolk). The modern surname can be found as Giles, Gyles, Jiles, Jellis(s), Gill(e)y and Gilis. Among the sample recordings in London are the marriage of John Gilley and Kathleen Millard on June 18th 1606 at St. Helen's, Bishopgate, and the christening of Edward, son of Martin and Ann Gilley, on January 12th 1673 at St. Stephan's, Coleman Street. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ailward Gile, which was dated 1176, The Pipe Rolls of Buckinghamshire, during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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