Holy
Holy was given to 10 girls in 2025, #9,701 among girls’ names; 198 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Holy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Holy?
#9,701 among girls’ names, 2025
Holy rose from #12,256 in 2015 to #9,701 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 4.5 to 6.2 per million.
22 babies in 2018, the peak
Holy peaked in 2018, when 22 babies were given it (12 girls, #8,829 among girls’ names). The 10 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #9,701 | under 5 | |
| 2024 | 9 | #10,578 | under 5 | |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,634 | 7 | #10,119 |
| 2022 | 14 | #7,771 | under 5 | |
| 2021 | 7 | #12,694 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,478 | under 5 | |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,291 | under 5 | |
| 2018 | 12 | #8,829 | 10 | #7,804 |
| 2017 | 14 | #8,008 | under 5 | |
| 2016 | 9 | #11,199 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (20)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 8 | #12,256 | 5 | #12,790 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,818 | under 5 | |
| 2011 | 6 | #15,526 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 7 | #14,121 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | 5 | #17,085 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 5 | #16,686 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,634 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,851 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 7 | #7,926 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,429 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Holy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 198 Americans recorded as Holy, 89% are girls and 11% boys. In 2025 it went to 10 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Holy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Holy, and how old are they?
An estimated 196 Americans named Holy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 12. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 384 people named Holy (299 women and girls, 85 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 137 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.8 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).
How common is the spelling Holy?
Holy is a less common spelling of Holly: SSA has recorded 198 Holy and 206,845 Holly since 1880.
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 221,003 babies since 1880, Holy is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 10 of their 813 babies (1.2%), the fourth most given that year.
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 Holy
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 Holy and names like it
- Compare Holy and HollyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sHoly peaked in 2018.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Holy.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Holy alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.