Producer Noritaka Funamizu confirmed in a 1998 Famitsu interview that Guile's overall appearance was modeled after Jean Pierre Polnareff, a character from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Guile's page in Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks goes into detail, explaining that they started with Polnareff as an inspiration, then stretched his hair out to give him "the always distinctive Stroheim look" instead. Noritaka also explained that Guile's name was derived from Polnareff's archenemy, J.Geil, though this was a mix up from the development staff at the time.

Additionally, during the early development stages of Street Fighter II, Guile's Sonic Boom attack was originally known as "Divine Sandstorm", in reference to the character Wamuu.