Hilda
Masculine · “battle”
Hilda is given to girls far more often — 81,022 girls against 178 boys since 1880. See Hilda as a girl name
Hilda entered the US charts in 1909, peaked at #1155 in 1909, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Hilda?
Hilda first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Hilda alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Hilda most popular?
Hilda peaked in 1909, reaching #1155 nationally. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 192611 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1155reached in 1909
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%6 in 1983, 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.
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
Hildas among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hilda 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
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What they receive
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Hilda
Masculine
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. Fewer than a hundred people named Hilda are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Hilda in 2025?
- Hilda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hilda with classmates?
- Hilda 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 Hilda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hilda and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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