Ilda
Feminine · “battle”
Ilda is Hilda with the h gone, which is what Spanish and Italian do to a borrowed h as a matter of course. Neither language pronounces the letter, and both are inclined to drop it in writing as well when a name arrives from outside. The name underneath belongs to an abbess who chaired the meeting that decided how England would calculate Easter.
How old is the name Ilda?
Ilda first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Ilda alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 900 people named Ilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ilda most popular?
Ilda peaked in 1905, reaching #848 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Germanic element meaning battle to Ilda
The story of Ilda
Hilda of Whitby ran a double monastery of men and women, trained five bishops, and hosted the synod at which the English church chose between the Roman and the Irish methods of calculating Easter. She had been trained in the Irish tradition and the synod went the other way, and she accepted the ruling and carried on. The dispute mattered more than it sounds: two systems meant a court where the king was celebrating Easter while the queen was still fasting through Lent, which was politically as well as liturgically untenable. She also, according to Bede, took in a herdsman who could not sing, discovered he had composed a hymn in his sleep, and had him educated; the poem is the oldest surviving piece of English verse.
Meaning
battle
The Germanic element behind the parent name means battle or strife and appears at the end of a long list of women's names across the Germanic world. The reading is settled. The missing h changes nothing about the sense; it is a matter of which language's spelling conventions the name passed through on its way into the register.
How the name formed
- A Germanic element meaning battle
- Hilda in Old English and Old Norse use
- The h dropped in Spanish and Italian spelling
- Ilda in American records with southern European families
Related forms: Ilda · Ilda · Hilda
Pronouncing Ilda
EEL-dah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the first vowel long in Spanish and Italian. English speakers meeting it cold usually say IL-duh with a short vowel, which is the Hilda vowel and not the Spanish one.
Nicknames for Ilda
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 192526 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #848reached in 1905
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%5 in 2024, 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.
Ilda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ilda in Spanish — same name
- Ilda in Italian — same name
- Hilda in English — spelling variant
Ildas among us
people named Ilda 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
Ilda 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 is short, clear and easy to say in Spanish, Italian and English alike.
- It is a genuine inherited name with a documented element rather than a modern formation.
- It carries an unusually formidable historical bearer.
- It will be written Hilda by anyone who assumes the letter was left out by mistake.
- The first vowel differs between the Spanish and the English reading.
- The translated element is battle, which a child who looks it up will find.
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Ilda
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ildas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Ilda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ilda in 2025?
- Ilda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ilda with classmates?
- Ilda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More I names
The most-given names starting with I, all years combined.
Isabella#7 · Irene#651 · Ida#1120 · Isabel#176 · Isabelle#166 · Iris#61 · Ivy#39 · Irma#3167
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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