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Hildegard

#7,625 in 2025Girls' name

Battle + enclosure, through Hildegard

Hildegard has been given to 1,945 babies in the U.S. since 1888. In 2025 it ranked #7,625 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1915, with 81 recorded.

Babies named Hildegard, 2025

1 in 237,000

Hildegard over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hildegard: meaning, origin, and history

Battle + enclosure, through Hildegard

German and West Germanic languages

What Hildegard means

Hildegard belongs to the name family reached through Hildegard → Hildegard. Its meaning is “battle + enclosure”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from German Hildegard in the 19th century; ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *Hildigardu.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Hildegard (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Hildegard is used in English, German and Swedish. Its origins include German and West Germanic languages.

Hildegard comes through German Hildegard and Proto-West Germanic *Hildigardu.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Hildegard.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,945 girls were recorded with the name Hildegard between 1888 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 81 in 1915; its best national rank was #617 in 1906.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #11,474 in 2020 to #7,625 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #15,205 in 2015 to #7,625 in 2025.

How common is Hildegard?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 237,000
14 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 115,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#7,625
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
164,137 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hildegard sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 164,137 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hildegard. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hildegards were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hildegard was born before 1923 — so the typical Hildegard is around 102 today.

Median birth year
1923
About 102 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
24.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
287
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 24.8% of all recorded uses (483).

Is Hildegard rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,133
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+3,849
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+7,580
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.33×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
17.3%
Peak was 1915 (81)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#617
1906

Spellings of Hildegard

Hildegard is not the most common spelling — Hildegarde is, with 54.5% against Hildegard's 45.5%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Hildegard is used

Across 1910–2025, Hildegard was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 102,589 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 20,000
  2. 2Wisconsin1 in 25,000
  3. 3North Dakota1 in 100,000
  4. 4New York1 in 100,000
  5. 5Iowa1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Michigan1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Hildegard has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Hildegard around the world

Where Hildegard ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1901–1998
    #4,650
    in 1998
  • South Australia
    1951–1962
    #647
    in 1962

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Hildegard by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#7,625
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 3,849
Best rank ever
#617
1906
Peak year
1915
81 that year
First recorded
1888
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,945
Count in 2025
14

Names similar to Hildegard

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

HildagardHildegardeHilariaHildrethHildredHilianaHilarieHillarieHilliaryHilleryHillaryHildagardeLeonardHilinaiHildurHildeHilaBernardHilmaHilaryWillardHillariHowardHiliary

Sibling names for Hildegard

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Hildegard

Top names of 1915, Hildegard's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1906Girls' names starting with HMedieval NamesUncommon German Girl Names