Hinton
Masculine · “a farm of a religious household”
Hinton is an English place-name found in dozens of villages, and many of them began as the farm of a religious community. As a first name it is rare and dignified, and as a surname it now belongs to one of the founders of modern artificial intelligence.
How old is the name Hinton?
Hinton first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Hinton alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 200 people named Hinton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hinton most popular?
Hinton peaked in 1908, reaching #1373 nationally. See the whole 1908 chart.
Where it comes from
From hīgna tūn to Hinton
The story of Hinton
There are Hintons all over southern England, Hinton St George, Hinton Ampner, Hinton Charterhouse, and place-name scholars read many of them as hīgna tūn, the farm that fed a community of monks or clergy. The surname spread from them and crossed to America, where it was sometimes used as a first name. In our own time it belongs to Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian scientist whose work on neural networks taught computers to learn from examples and who shared a Nobel Prize in physics for it.
Meaningscholars disagree
a farm of a religious household, or a high farm
Many English Hintons come from Old English hīgna tūn, the farm of a household, often of monks; others from hēah tūn, a high farm. Which applies depends on the place.
How the name formed
- hīgna tūn
- Hinton
Pronouncing Hinton
HIN-tun
Stress on the first syllable.
Nicknames for Hinton
Limited
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
- 1908
- Most boys named
- 192419 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1373reached in 1908
- Change vs 2022
- −37.5%5 in 2024, from 8
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.
Hintons among us
people named Hinton 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
Hinton 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
- It has a real English place-name history.
- It sounds dignified and is easy to say.
- It is almost never given now, so it is distinctive.
- People will take it for a surname first.
- The obvious short form, Hint, is an ordinary word.
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Hinton
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hintons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Hinton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hinton in 2025?
- Hinton is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hinton with classmates?
- Hinton 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 Hinton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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