Hollis
Masculine · Old English roots · “dweller by the holly trees”
Hollis is given to both — 16,014 boys and 5,498 girls since 1880. See Hollis as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Hollis began as an English surname for someone who lived among the holly — a description of a place before it was ever a person's name. It has been in American use long enough to have carried grandparents and now kindergartners, and it moves easily between the two, one clean pair of syllables that lands on a soft hiss. It sits on American maps too, as a New Hampshire town and a neighborhood of Queens.
How old is the name Hollis?
Hollis was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hollis alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 7,700 people named Hollis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hollis most popular?
Hollis peaked in 1908, reaching #290 nationally. Today it ranks #893, 603 places below that high. See the whole 1908 chart.
Hollis appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From holegn (Old English, holly) to Hollis
The story of Hollis
The root is the holly tree: Old English holegn, which gave medieval English families names like Hollis, Hollins and Hollings for people whose homes stood by the shrubs. Such topographic surnames crossed to North America with English settlers, and in the American habit — strongest in the South, where family names have long been handed forward as first names — Hollis stepped over into the given-name column. It has stayed there ever since, never crowding a classroom, never disappearing from one either. Because it arrived through a surname rather than through a saint or a king, it came with no fixed gender, which is why it is recorded for boys and girls alike.
Meaning
dweller by the holly trees
From Old English holegn, holly, by way of the Middle English surname for someone living near holly bushes or a holly copse.
How the name formed
- holegnOld English, holly
- HollisMiddle English surname
- HollisEnglish family name
- HollisAmerican given name
Related forms: Hollins · Holly · Hollace
Pronouncing Hollis
HOL-iss
Two syllables, stress on the first, ending in a clean s — it rhymes with Wallace. No competing pronunciations in English.
Nicknames for Hollis
High
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 boys named
- 1921294 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #290reached in 1908
- Change vs 2022
- +25.5%266 in 2025, from 212
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.
Hollis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hollins in English — related form
- Holly in English — related form
- Hollace in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Tennessee.
Holliss among us
people named Hollis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,421 born in 2025 was named Hollis
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
Hollis 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 Hollis is headed
Hollis 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.
Hollis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hollis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and spelled the way it sounds: two syllables that almost never need repeating.
- On the charts continuously since records began, so it has never been a novelty and has never had a fashion crash.
- Works for a boy or a girl without alteration, having arrived as a surname rather than as a gendered given name.
- Familiar to American ears from towns and place names, which makes it recognizable even to people who have not met one.
- It leans to boys but does not settle there, so expect the occasional wrong assumption on both sides — and a girl named Hollis will be the rarer case of the two.
- Hollis is still widely read as a last name, which means forms, teachers and receptionists will sometimes file it in the wrong box.
- People who half-hear it will offer Holly or Hollie, and a Hollis will spend some years gently correcting that.
- Its living bearers skew heavily toward older generations, so for now it may read as inherited rather than current — that gap tends to close as a name comes back around.
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Hollis
Masculine · Old English roots · #893 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Holliss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,700 people named Hollis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hollis in 2025?
- Hollis ranks #893 among US boy names in 2025, with 266 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hollis?
- About 1 in every 6,421 US boys born in 2025 was named Hollis — 266 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hollis with classmates?
- Hollis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hollis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Laith#893 · Eliezer#893 · Ishaan#893 · Shepard#891 · Boaz#891 · Alistair#897 · Kaleo#897 · Marcello#897
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hollis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hollis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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