Hilda
Feminine · “battle”
Hilda is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 81,022 girls against 178 boys since 1880.
Hilda is battle, plain and unaccompanied. Most Germanic names pair two words; this one keeps only the element that means combat, and its greatest bearer used it to run the most important abbey in England.
How old is the name Hilda?
Hilda was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hilda alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 23,500 people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hilda most popular?
Hilda peaked in 1899, reaching #87 nationally. Today it ranks #2998, 2,911 places below that high. See the whole 1899 chart.
Hilda appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From hild to Hilda
The story of Hilda
Hild of Whitby was a seventh-century Northumbrian abbess who ran a double monastery of men and women, trained five bishops, and hosted the Synod of Whitby in 664 — the meeting that settled how the English church would calculate Easter and which authority it would follow. Her name survived on that account. It returned strongly in the nineteenth century and peaked in America around 1900.
Meaning
battle
From the Germanic hild, 'battle' or 'strife', which appears as an element in dozens of women's names — Brunhild, Clothilde, Matilda, Gertrude's cousins. Hilda is that element standing alone, a shortening of any of the compounds that contain it.
How the name formed
- hild
- Hild
- Hilda
Related forms: Hilda · Hilda · Hilda · Hylda
Pronouncing Hilda
HIL-duh
Two syllables, stress on the first. German, Swedish and Spanish all say it the same way.
Nicknames for Hilda
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19212,128 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #87reached in 1899
- Change vs 2022
- −8.3%55 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.
Hilda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hilda in German — same name
- Hilda in Swedish — same name
- Hilda in Spanish — same name
- Hylda in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Hildas among us
people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 29,223 born in 2025 was named Hilda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Hilda 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
Where Hilda is headed
Hilda should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Hilda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hilda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented seventh-century abbess of real consequence stands behind it.
- It is spelled identically in German, Swedish and Spanish.
- Two firm syllables with no pronunciation risk at all.
- The meaning is bluntly martial, which some families will want to weigh.
- It is strongly period-coded to the turn of the last century in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Hilda
Feminine · #2998 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hildas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,500 people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hilda in 2025?
- Hilda ranks #2998 among US girl names in 2025, with 55 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hilda?
- About 1 in every 29,223 US girls born in 2025 was named Hilda — 55 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hilda with classmates?
- Hilda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hilda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Halia#2998 · Alize#2998 · Imara#2998 · Amna#2998 · Aniston#2998 · Kassie#2998 · Leiana#2998 · Seline#2998
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hilda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hilda and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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