Hilary
Masculine · “cheerful”
Hilary is given to both — 2,197 boys and 24,171 girls since 1880. See Hilary as a girl 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 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Hilary alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 800 people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hilary most popular?
Hilary peaked in 1891, reaching #700 nationally. See the whole 1891 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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 192351 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #700reached in 1891
- Change vs 1992
- −16.7%5 in 2018, from 6
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
Hilarys among us
people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hilary sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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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Hilary
Masculine
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 800 people named Hilary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hilary in 2025?
- Hilary is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hilary with classmates?
- Hilary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hilary? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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