Jill’s Notebook: Personalized Journal for Jill
Jill's Notebook puts her name front and center, written in flowing script across a soft watercolor apple blossom design.
- 160 lined pages
- 6" x 9" paperback
- Watercolor apple blossom cover with "Jill's Notebook" on the front
- Printed and shipped by Amazon
Jill: meaning and origin
Jill is a short form of Gillian, Behind the Name explains, and Gillian is a medieval English feminine form of Julian, used since the 13th century. Wikipedia says it often shortens Gillian or Jillian, which began as a Middle English variant of Juliana. Jill was once so common that it had an everygirl quality, as in “Jack and Jill”, but by the 17th century it had become an unflattering term for a woman and fell out of use. It returned in the 20th century and was most used from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Nicknames and variants
Behind the Name lists Gill as a variant and Jillie and Jilly as diminutives, and the longer Gillian and Jillian are always available. Wikipedia notes that Jill is still well used in the Netherlands. Jilly is the playful choice for a little Jill.
Famous people named Jill
Jill Ellis coached the US women’s national soccer team to World Cup wins in 2015 and 2019, only the second coach to win consecutive World Cups. Astronomer Jill Tarter led the Center for SETI Research, and Wikipedia says Ellie Arroway, the scientist Jodie Foster played in Contact, was “largely based” on Tarter’s work. And Philadelphia-born singer Jill Scott began as a spoken-word poet before her platinum debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? (2000).
Is Jill a popular name?
Jill is a baby-boom name. US Social Security data has it entering the top 200 at 192nd in the 1940s, rising to 61st in the 1960s, its biggest decade, when more than 69,000 American girls were named Jill, and reaching its best rank, 54th, in the 1970s. It fell to 121st in the 1980s and then left the top 200.
Jill trivia
Jack and Jill used to be Jack and Gill. Wikipedia says the nursery rhyme was sometimes spelled that way in earlier versions, and that its earliest known version appeared in a reprint of John Newbery’s Mother Goose’s Melody, thought to have been first published in London around 1765.
Gift ideas that suit a Jill
- For a soccer coach. Lineups and practice plans, in honor of Jill Ellis.
- For a stargazer. Sky notes, for a name shared with SETI astronomer Jill Tarter.
- For a poet. Spoken-word drafts, in honor of Jill Scott.
- For a baby shower. A notebook to go with Jack and Jill nursery rhymes.
How Jill can use it
Any Jill, of any age. The 6" x 9" size is roomy enough for proper writing and small enough for a handbag or school bag. With 160 plain lined pages there’s no fixed layout, so it can be a diary, a gratitude journal, a study notebook, a recipe book or a home for to-do lists. Notebooks tend to multiply in drawers, but one with her name on the front is instantly hers.
The little things that make it hers
There’s something about seeing your own name in print. It makes a notebook feel like it belongs to you, which is a good reason to fill it. It also means Jill can pick hers out of a pile in a second, at school, at work or on the kitchen counter.
Frequently asked questions
How big is Jill’s Notebook? About the size of a trade paperback book: 6 x 9 inches (15.2 x 22.9 cm), 160 lined pages.
Where do I buy it? It’s sold on Amazon in the US, Australia and the UK. Amazon prints and ships each copy and handles delivery and returns.
Do you have other names? Yes, the same apple blossom design comes in hundreds of girls’ names. Start at all name notebooks or our personalized name notebooks guide.
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