Huldah
Feminine · “A weasel”
Huldah is consulted, in her own story, about whether a newly discovered scroll is genuine — and her verdict sets off the biggest religious reform in the history of the kingdom.
How old is the name Huldah?
Huldah was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Huldah alive today was born around 1910, making them about 115 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Huldah are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Huldah most popular?
Huldah peaked in 1882, reaching #530 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Huldah
Workmen repairing the temple find a scroll. The king's officials do not take it to a priest or to the famous prophets of the period, several of whom are alive; they take it to Huldah, and she authenticates it and delivers a judgment on what it means. The reform that follows tears out the shrines, centralizes worship, and is one of the decisive moments in the formation of the religion — and the decision to treat the document as authoritative rests on a woman's ruling, recorded without any comment or defensiveness at all. The text simply says they went to her, which is the most striking thing about it.
Meaning
A weasel
The Hebrew word names the weasel or the mole-rat. Animal names for women are ordinary in the Hebrew Bible — Deborah is a bee, Rachel a ewe, Zipporah a bird — and they carry none of the dismissiveness an English speaker hears in them.
Pronouncing Huldah
HUL-duh
Two syllables, stress at the front. The final h is silent and stands for a Hebrew letter.
Nicknames for Huldah
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
- 192035 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #530reached in 1882
- Change vs 1978
- +20.0%6 in 2023, from 5
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.
Huldah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chuldah in Hebrew — same name
Huldahs among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Huldah 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
Huldah 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 carries one of the few women in the older literature who is consulted as an authority.
- It is short, firm and read correctly on sight.
- It is genuinely rare in current use.
- The meaning is an animal that English speakers do not admire, which is a modern reaction rather than an ancient one.
- It belongs to one American era and has not returned.
- It will be heard as Hilda or Golda by people working from sound.
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Huldah
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Huldahs 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 Huldah are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Huldah in 2025?
- Huldah is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Huldah with classmates?
- Huldah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Helen#461 · Heather#1261 · Hannah#56 · Hazel#21 · Holly#416 · Hailey#104 · Haley#861 · Heidi#340
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Huldah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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