A thin film inductive write head for magnetic recording has a write gap formed as a lamination of alternating layers of a nonmagnetic gap layer and a ferromagnetic spacer layer. There are N gap layers and N-1 spacer layers, with each pole tip of the write head being located adjacent to a gap layer. The spacer layers in the gap structure are formed of a ferromagnetic material with a high saturation moment density (B_S) that is close to the B_S of the spacer material from which the pole tips are formed. Unlike the pole tips, the spacer layers are not part of a magnetic circuit and are magnetically isolated, i.e., completely surrounded by nonmagnetic gap material. The effect of the spacer layers is to effectively divide the gap into a plurality of smaller gaps. The write head with the laminated gap creates a write bubble that is narrower in the off-track direction and wider in the in-track direction.