Hildegarde
Hildegarde was last recorded in 1961, when 13 babies were given it; 2,326 Americans have been recorded with it between 1885 and 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hildegarde by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hildegarde mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hildegarde is “a female given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Hildegard.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hildegarde?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #3,671, in 1961; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
124 babies in 1915, the peak
Hildegarde peaked in 1915, when 124 girls were given it, #584 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 13 | #3,671 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,717 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #5,824 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,670 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,301 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,898 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,868 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,347 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,650 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 10 | #3,583 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (74)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 8 | #4,093 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,400 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 8 | #4,009 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 8 | #4,124 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 19 | #2,184 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 8 | #3,495 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 13 | #2,556 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 20 | #1,964 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 20 | #1,936 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 23 | #1,669 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 23 | #1,657 | 0.02 |
| 1939 | 19 | #1,831 | 0.02 |
| 1938 | 29 | #1,395 | 0.03 |
| 1937 | 23 | #1,598 | 0.02 |
| 1936 | 34 | #1,237 | 0.03 |
| 1935 | 26 | #1,466 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 24 | #1,530 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 29 | #1,340 | 0.03 |
| 1932 | 37 | #1,182 | 0.03 |
| 1931 | 40 | #1,134 | 0.04 |
| 1930 | 47 | #1,079 | 0.04 |
| 1929 | 54 | #986 | 0.05 |
| 1928 | 46 | #1,123 | 0.04 |
| 1927 | 56 | #1,028 | 0.05 |
| 1926 | 44 | #1,155 | 0.04 |
| 1925 | 60 | #962 | 0.05 |
| 1924 | 46 | #1,155 | 0.04 |
| 1923 | 60 | #958 | 0.05 |
| 1922 | 63 | #933 | 0.05 |
| 1921 | 70 | #886 | 0.06 |
| 1920 | 64 | #910 | 0.05 |
| 1919 | 56 | #946 | 0.05 |
| 1918 | 77 | #817 | 0.07 |
| 1917 | 79 | #778 | 0.07 |
| 1916 | 108 | #655 | 0.10 |
| 1915 | 124 | #584 | 0.13 |
| 1914 | 74 | #677 | 0.10 |
| 1913 | 70 | #620 | 0.11 |
| 1912 | 54 | #682 | 0.10 |
| 1911 | 38 | #708 | 0.09 |
| 1910 | 39 | #684 | 0.10 |
| 1909 | 30 | #736 | 0.09 |
| 1908 | 35 | #656 | 0.10 |
| 1907 | 28 | #717 | 0.09 |
| 1906 | 33 | #628 | 0.11 |
| 1905 | 33 | #612 | 0.11 |
| 1904 | 33 | #591 | 0.12 |
| 1903 | 22 | #721 | 0.08 |
| 1902 | 20 | #783 | 0.08 |
| 1901 | 30 | #565 | 0.13 |
| 1900 | 30 | #645 | 0.10 |
| 1899 | 25 | #620 | 0.11 |
| 1898 | 31 | #582 | 0.12 |
| 1897 | 21 | #687 | 0.09 |
| 1896 | 19 | #737 | 0.08 |
| 1895 | 15 | #840 | 0.06 |
| 1894 | 11 | #971 | 0.05 |
| 1893 | 13 | #844 | 0.06 |
| 1892 | 12 | #874 | 0.06 |
| 1891 | 19 | #617 | 0.10 |
| 1890 | 17 | #651 | 0.09 |
| 1888 | 8 | #987 | 0.04 |
| 1887 | 8 | #894 | 0.05 |
| 1885 | 8 | #819 | 0.06 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hildegarde a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hildegarde has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 74 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Hildegarde: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hildegarde, and how old are they?
An estimated 219 Americans named Hildegarde and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (9% of everyone recorded); the median is 83 years old and half are between 75 and 89. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 479 people named Hildegarde (479 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 357 born in the U.S. The Census count is 34% above 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 Hildegarde born?
The states with the most babies named Hildegarde are Wisconsin, New York and Minnesota, with 62% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Wisconsin and Minnesota are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin | 233 | not ranked | 5.2× |
| New York | 174 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Minnesota | 67 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Ohio | 51 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 49 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 48 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| New Jersey | 35 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Indiana | 31 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 28 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Missouri | 23 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Hildegarde is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hildegarde is most over-represented in Wisconsin: since 1910 it was given 5.2 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 Hildegarde 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,532 babies since 1880, Hildegarde is the most given (92% of them).
| Name | Since 1880 | Births 2025 | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hildegarde | 2,326 | under 5 | 1915 |
| Hildagarde | 206 | 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 Hildegarde
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 Hildegarde and names like it
- Compare Hildegarde and HildagardeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sHildegarde peaked in 1915.
- Wisconsin’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hildegarde since 1910.
- The top names of 1915The year the most babies were named Hildegarde.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Hildegarde alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with HMost given first.