I have met a
Gillian who goes by
Gill. I always want to pronounce it "gill" and "gill-ian".
I kind of hate
Jill for how 'common' it is, but I also don't think it's common. I think
Jill only sounds common because of "
Jack and
Jill" and we know that
Jack is the common everyman fairytale name, and
Jill only gets that reputation by association. The sound also makes no sense to me and doesn't sound namey at all. I think it sounds like an unpleasant word instead of a name.
Jilly is better than
Jill but it's also not a good name, it's like a cross between silly and jelly.
Jill is at least more usable in a serious context. I'd prefer
Gigi or Jiji but those don't sound very serious either.
Th full name
Jillian just makes me think we should bring back
Julian as a unisex name because that sounds so much better.