Hope

Meaning and origin

Hope is an English word name expressing expectation and desire for something good. Its meaning is immediately familiar to English speakers, and its history as a personal name belongs to the tradition of naming children after virtues and valued qualities.

The word has Old English roots. As a given name, Hope was adopted by Puritans in the seventeenth century, placing it within an established religious naming tradition. It has continued as a personal name long after that particular period of English history.

Faith and Charity are natural companions in that tradition. In the New Testament, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians brings faith, hope, and love together in a widely recognized passage. Hope’s religious association therefore rests on a familiar word and a central idea in Christian writing.

Sound and style

Hope is pronounced HOHP, with one syllable and a long o. The opening h is light, while the final p gives the name a clear stopping point. Its short sound distinguishes it from longer virtue names such as Felicity or Patience.

The spelling is identical to the everyday English word. That gives it a directness shared with Faith and Grace, while each name carries its own meaning. Hope does not need a longer formal name behind it and has a substantial history in American birth records on its own.

Its four letters also make it compact in writing. Unlike a familiar form created by shortening another name, Hope begins with a complete vocabulary word and keeps that word unchanged.

Hope Solo and soccer

American goalkeeper Hope Solo is one of the name’s prominent modern bearers. Her international career included Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and the United States’ victory at the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

She received the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper at both the 2011 and 2015 Women’s World Cups. In 2011, she also received the Bronze Ball as the tournament’s third-best player overall, an unusual distinction for a goalkeeper.

U.S. Soccer’s account of her career records 202 appearances for the national team. Her role in major international tournaments gives Hope a recognizable sporting association alongside its much older history as a virtue name.

The contrast is part of the name’s cultural range: a short English word used by seventeenth-century families also appears on the team sheets of modern international soccer.

Popularity in the United States

Hope reached its best American rank for girls, number 143, in 1999. Its largest annual count followed in 2000, when 2,321 babies received the name.

It ranked number 225 in 2015, number 203 in 2020, and number 352 in 2025. The name has remained in regular use, with its strongest annual count coming around the turn of the twenty-first century.

How popular is Hope?

In 2025, Hope ranked #352 among girls in the United States, with 868 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 2,321 in 2000. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.