Hilary
Feminine · “cheerful”
Hilary is given to both — 24,171 girls and 2,197 boys since 1880. See Hilary as a boy nameSee other names given to both
This was a man's name for most of its history. Bishops, saints and English lawyers called Hilary appear for well over a thousand years with nobody finding it odd, and the switch to women is a twentieth-century event that happened in Britain and America and nowhere else particularly. The name did not change; the assumption about it did.
How old is the name Hilary?
Hilary first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Hilary alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 23,000 people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hilary most popular?
Hilary peaked in 1990, reaching #232 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 5,006 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hilarius to Hilary
The story of Hilary
The English legal year is still divided into terms named for saints' days, and one of them is named for a fourth-century bishop who carried this name. Hilary term runs in the early part of the year at the courts and at two of the older universities, and the name is on timetables, on court listings and in the diaries of a great many people who have never wondered where it came from. It is one of the few places where a medieval church calendar is still doing practical administrative work in a modern state, and the name that survives inside it is this one.
Meaning
cheerful
From a Latin adjective meaning cheerful or glad, itself borrowed from Greek. The same root gives English a familiar word for something extremely funny, which puts the name in the odd position of being related to a word much stronger than itself.
How the name formed
- Hilarius
- Hilary
- Hillary
Related forms: Hilaire · Ilario · Hilario
Pronouncing Hilary
HIL-uh-ree
Three syllables with the stress at the front and a middle that reduces almost to nothing. The doubled-l spelling is said identically.
Nicknames for Hilary
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 19911,149 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #232reached in 1990
- Change vs 2023
- −60.0%24 in 2025, from 60
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.
Hilary in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hilaire in French — same name
- Ilario in Italian — same name
- Hilario in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Louisiana.
Hilarys among us
people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Hilary
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hilary
- #5238
- Hilary on the 2025 chart
- #869
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hilary went to 24 girls in 2025, but Hillary is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 91, which makes it the 869th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,369 places above the chart.
- Hillary67
- Hilary24
About 1 girl in 17,662 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Hilary 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
The Deana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hilary's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deana climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deana's path sketches the road Hilary is walking now.
Hilary 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
Hilary beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hilary in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is straightforwardly positive and needs no explaining.
- It has an unusually long documented history for a name this uncommon.
- The spelling and the sound agree with no ambiguity.
- Hillary with two l's is equally common and the spelling gets queried constantly.
- The name is strongly associated with public figures, which is a large thing to carry.
- The record holds boys as well, though the boy is now much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Hilary
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hilarys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,000 people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hilary?
- Hilary is one of 2 recorded spellings. Hillary is the more common one — 67 births in 2025 against 24 for Hilary.
- How popular is the name Hilary in 2025?
- Hilary ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hilary?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Hilary — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hilary with classmates?
- Hilary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hilary
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hilary? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hilary and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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