Hildegard
Hildegard was given to 14 girls in 2025, #7,625 among girls’ names; 1,945 Americans have been recorded with it since 1888 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hildegard by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hildegard mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hildegard is “a female given name from German.”
Borrowed from German Hildegard in the 19th century; ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *Hildigardu.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hildegard?
#7,625 among girls’ names, 2025
Hildegard rose from #15,205 in 2015 to #7,625 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.4 to 8.7 per million.
81 babies in 1915, the peak
Hildegard peaked in 1915, when 81 girls were given it, #740 among girls’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #7,625 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 18 | #6,492 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 19 | #6,256 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 22 | #5,698 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,193 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,474 | under 0.01 |
| 2019 | 14 | #7,884 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 10 | #10,083 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 6 | #14,791 | under 0.01 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,372 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (90)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #15,205 | under 0.01 |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,310 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,387 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,518 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,283 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,666 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,498 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,939 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,577 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 9 | #4,426 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 11 | #3,810 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,033 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 11 | #3,776 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,448 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 10 | #3,819 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,346 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 10 | #3,643 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 7 | #4,545 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,477 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,906 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,701 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 9 | #3,835 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 13 | #2,792 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 8 | #3,494 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 10 | #3,022 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 9 | #3,344 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 11 | #2,888 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 17 | #2,044 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 16 | #2,056 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 14 | #2,238 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 23 | #1,615 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 25 | #1,513 | 0.02 |
| 1936 | 14 | #2,192 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 24 | #1,526 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 31 | #1,299 | 0.03 |
| 1933 | 34 | #1,231 | 0.03 |
| 1932 | 30 | #1,361 | 0.03 |
| 1931 | 31 | #1,322 | 0.03 |
| 1930 | 50 | #1,044 | 0.04 |
| 1929 | 44 | #1,112 | 0.04 |
| 1928 | 44 | #1,150 | 0.04 |
| 1927 | 57 | #1,012 | 0.05 |
| 1926 | 47 | #1,106 | 0.04 |
| 1925 | 46 | #1,143 | 0.04 |
| 1924 | 38 | #1,310 | 0.03 |
| 1923 | 47 | #1,120 | 0.04 |
| 1922 | 43 | #1,177 | 0.04 |
| 1921 | 35 | #1,352 | 0.03 |
| 1920 | 35 | #1,327 | 0.03 |
| 1919 | 50 | #1,020 | 0.04 |
| 1918 | 57 | #954 | 0.05 |
| 1917 | 63 | #869 | 0.06 |
| 1916 | 70 | #813 | 0.07 |
| 1915 | 81 | #740 | 0.08 |
| 1914 | 44 | #881 | 0.06 |
| 1913 | 39 | #847 | 0.06 |
| 1912 | 45 | #751 | 0.08 |
| 1911 | 22 | #943 | 0.05 |
| 1910 | 12 | #1,377 | 0.03 |
| 1909 | 21 | #895 | 0.06 |
| 1908 | 13 | #1,164 | 0.04 |
| 1907 | 18 | #904 | 0.06 |
| 1906 | 34 | #617 | 0.12 |
| 1905 | 21 | #810 | 0.07 |
| 1904 | 23 | #740 | 0.08 |
| 1903 | 17 | #846 | 0.06 |
| 1902 | 28 | #630 | 0.11 |
| 1901 | 21 | #709 | 0.09 |
| 1900 | 23 | #768 | 0.08 |
| 1899 | 20 | #715 | 0.09 |
| 1898 | 16 | #862 | 0.06 |
| 1897 | 14 | #879 | 0.06 |
| 1896 | 21 | #693 | 0.09 |
| 1895 | 13 | #910 | 0.06 |
| 1894 | 10 | #1,026 | 0.04 |
| 1893 | 13 | #843 | 0.06 |
| 1892 | 6 | #1,350 | 0.03 |
| 1891 | 11 | #862 | 0.06 |
| 1890 | 6 | #1,269 | 0.03 |
| 1888 | 6 | #1,197 | 0.03 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hildegard a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hildegard has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 90 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Hildegard: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hildegard, and how old are they?
An estimated 381 Americans named Hildegard and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (20% of everyone recorded); the median is 67 years old and half are between 7 and 81. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,460 people named Hildegard (2,453 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 409 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Hildegard born?
The states with the most babies named Hildegard are Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin, with 85% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota and Wisconsin are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | 157 | not ranked | 4.5× |
| New York | 141 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Wisconsin | 132 | not ranked | 3.4× |
| Illinois | 33 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Michigan | 10 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| North Dakota | 7 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Iowa | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Ohio | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Hildegard is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hildegard is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1910 it was given 4.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Hildegard with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 4,391 babies since 1880, Hildegard is the second most given (44% of them).
| Name | Since 1880 | Births 2025 | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hildegarde | 2,326 | under 5 | 1915 |
| Hildegard | 1,945 | 14 | 1915 |
| Hildagard | 120 | under 5 | 1916 |
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Hildegard
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Hildegard and names like it
- Compare Hildegard and HildegardeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sHildegard peaked in 1915.
- Minnesota’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hildegard since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Hildegard: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1915The year the most babies were named Hildegard.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Hildegard alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.