page_title: Gilleleje
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Gilleleje / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Fishing boats in Gilleleje, Denmark
context_page_description: Gilleleje is one of the main towns of the Gribskov municipality in Region Hovedstaden in Denmark. The town is at the northernmost point of Sjælland in Denmark. As of 1 January 2020, it has a population of 6,658.
context_section_description: The name Gilleleje is made up from the combination of the obsolete Danish word gil, which is a crevice or cleft, and leje, which is a place where fishermen come in specific seasons to fish. It was probably concatenated from Gilbjerg Leje, where Gilbjerg ("cleftmountain") is a rather dramatic name for a rather mundane point just west of town limits. The towns ending in -leje are often from the 16th century, when the fishermen actually settled and regular townships appeared. Compare with the Swedish ending läge.
caption: Fishing boats in Gilleleje harbor
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