Hila
Feminine · “halo”
The same four letters peak twice, a century apart, from two unconnected sources. There is an American Hila in the 1880s, a New England short form now almost entirely forgotten, and an Israeli Hila that has been common since the 1970s and means a halo of light. They are not the same name.
How old is the name Hila?
Hila first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Hila alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 500 people named Hila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hila most popular?
Hila peaked in 1890, reaching #1006 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 5,319 places below that high. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hila to Hila
The story of Hila
The American Hila belongs to a nineteenth-century habit of registering the spoken short form rather than the formal name, which is why so many four-letter women's names appear in the 1880s records and vanish by 1920. Its best year on file is 1890, at the very beginning of the record, which usually means the name was already old. The Israeli Hila has a different history altogether: modern Hebrew revived and coined heavily from the biblical vocabulary in the twentieth century, and a great many Israeli girls' names, Hila among them, are ordinary Hebrew nouns for light, dew, song and sky pressed into use as names. Both arrive in United States records; the older one is a residue and the newer one is an import.
Meaningscholars disagree
halo, aura, corona (modern Hebrew)
Modern Hebrew hila means a halo or ring of light, and this is the source of the Israeli name, which is unambiguous. The nineteenth-century American Hila is separate and unresolved: it appears in New England records as a short form of names including Hilah, Hulda and Hildah, and may simply be a written rendering of a spoken family form. The two share nothing but their spelling.
How the name formed
- hila
- Hila
Related forms: Hila · Hilla · Hilah
Pronouncing Hila
HEE-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, in the Hebrew name. The nineteenth-century American form was more often HY-lah with a long i, which is what an English speaker will guess.
Nicknames for Hila
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 202318 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1006reached in 1890
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%18 in 2025, from 18
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hila in Hebrew — same name
- Hilla in Hebrew — spelling variant
- Hilah in English — spelling variant
Hilas among us
people named Hila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Hila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hila
- #6325
- Hila on the 2025 chart
- #935
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hila went to 18 girls in 2025, but Hyla is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 25, which makes it the 935th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,390 places above the chart.
- Hila18
- Hyla7
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 89,293 for Hila itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Hila sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Hila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and no silent letters at all.
- Common and unremarkable in Israel, which gives it a real living community of bearers.
- The Hebrew meaning is concrete and easy to explain in a word.
- English speakers will say HY-lah on sight; the Hebrew name is HEE-lah.
- Hilla, Hillah and Hilah all appear, and the doubled l is standard in some transliterations.
- The spelling sits one letter from Hilda and from Isla, both of which will be substituted.
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Hila
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Hila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hila?
- Hila is the most-used spelling in US records — 18 of the 25 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Hyla.
- How popular is the name Hila in 2025?
- Hila ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hila?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Hila — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hila with classmates?
- Hila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hila? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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