Hope
Masculine · “hope”
Hope is given to girls far more often — 97,225 girls against 568 boys since 1880. See Hope as a girl name
Hope is an ordinary English word doing something almost no word gets to do: standing in for a person. It arrived as a name with the Reformation, when English families began giving their children qualities instead of saints, and of that entire crop — Prudence, Temperance, Mercy, Constance, Silence — it is one of a mere handful still used without a second thought.
How old is the name Hope?
Hope was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hope alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 300 people named Hope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hope most popular?
Hope peaked in 1880, reaching #809 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 11,199 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From hopa to Hope
The story of Hope
Faith, Hope and Charity travel together because the letters of Paul name them together, and the sixteenth and seventeenth-century English Protestants who wanted names free of the saints' calendar took them straight off the page. Whole families were named that way, and the more elaborate examples — Praise-God, Increase, Hopestill — show how far the habit could go. Most of that crop did not survive the eighteenth century. Hope did, partly because it is short and partly because it never stopped being a plain word people say to each other. It crossed to New England with the colonists and has been in continuous American use ever since, which very few names of that generation can claim.
Meaning
hope
It is the English noun itself, not a translation of anything older. The word is Old English hopa, and it has meant essentially what it means now for a thousand years. That directness is unusual: most names have to be unpacked, and this one does not.
How the name formed
- hopa
- Hope
Related forms: Esperanza · Speranza · Esperança · Nadezhda · Espérance
Pronouncing Hope
HOHP
One syllable, one sound, and no English speaker will ever hesitate over it. Outside English the silent final e causes trouble — Spanish and Italian readers will want to say a second syllable — which is the only place the name is not effortless.
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
- 192118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #809reached in 1880
- Change vs 2024
- −28.6%5 in 2025, from 7
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.
Hope in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Esperanza in Spanish — related form
- Speranza in Italian — related form
- Esperança in Portuguese — related form
- Nadezhda in Russian — related form
- Espérance in French — related form
Hopes among us
people named Hope are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Hope
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
Hope 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
Hope beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hope in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Anyone can spell it correctly after hearing it once, in any accent, over any phone line.
- It is a real word, so it is never misheard as something else and never needs repeating.
- It has no fixed generation attached to it; it sits equally well on a newborn, a teenager and a woman of seventy.
- The records carry it for boys as well as girls, and virtue names have gone both ways since the beginning.
- A word carries weight a name does not, and a child will be asked about it — kindly, mostly, but often, and sometimes at moments when the subject is heavy.
- It is well enough used that a class may hold another one, so it is distinctive without being rare.
- There is nothing to shorten. A child who wants a smaller everyday name has nowhere to go but a middle name.
- Nearly every child given this spelling now is a girl, so a boy named Hope will be the exception on every roster, and forms will assume otherwise before he can correct them.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Hope to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Hope? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Hope
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hopes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Hope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hope in 2025?
- Hope ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hope?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Hope — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hope with classmates?
- Hope will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hope
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hope? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hope and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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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