Hadassah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "myrtle tree".
Name Census estimates that about 8,586 living Americans carry the first name Hadassah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hadassah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hadassah births was 2024 (572 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hadassah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Hadassah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Hadassah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
8.6K
~ 1 in 39,920 Americans
Peak year
2024
572 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#532
Tracked since 1910
Census
Hadassah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,480 people with the first name Hadassah, which placed it at #3,704 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,704
National first-name rank
People counted
5.5K
5,480 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hadassah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hadassah is White at 57.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.5%) and Black (14.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Hadassah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Hadassah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.9% · 3,171
- Hispanic or Latino17.5% · 958
- Black or African American14.8% · 813
- Two or more races5.8% · 317
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 183
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 38
Popularity
Hadassah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hadassah from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,815 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hadassah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hadassah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Hadassah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hadassahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. New York, Florida, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Hadassah, while Utah, Nebraska, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 169 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hadassah
The name Hadassah has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is derived from the Hebrew word "hadas," which means "myrtle tree." The myrtle tree holds significant symbolism in Jewish tradition, representing beauty, fertility, and peace.
Hadassah is perhaps most famously associated with the biblical figure of Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah. According to the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible, Hadassah was a young Jewish woman who became the Queen of Persia during the reign of King Ahasuerus. Her story is celebrated during the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates her bravery and the deliverance of the Jewish people from persecution.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Hadassah was Hadassah Bashi (1518-1568), a Jewish woman from the Ottoman Empire who was renowned for her philanthropy and support of Jewish education. Another notable figure was Hadassah Berachah Varnhagen (1805-1889), a German Jewish writer and salonnière who hosted intellectual gatherings and advocated for Jewish emancipation.
During the 20th century, Hadassah became a popular name among Jewish communities around the world, particularly in the United States. Hadassah Lieberman (born 1938) is a prominent American Jewish author and the wife of former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman. Hadassah Gurion (1917-2000) was the wife of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, and played an active role in the establishment of the State of Israel.
Hadassah Froman (1921-2023) was an Israeli peace activist and founder of the Tent of Nations, a farm located in the West Bank that promotes coexistence and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. She dedicated her life to promoting dialogue and understanding between different communities in the region.
Throughout its history, the name Hadassah has carried symbolic meanings of beauty, strength, and resilience, drawing from its biblical roots and the inspiring stories of remarkable women who have borne this name.
People
Hadassah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hadassah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hadassah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hadassah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,586 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hadassah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 39,920 US residents.
Is Hadassah a common name?
We classify Hadassah as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,771 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hadassah most popular?
The single biggest year for Hadassah was 2024, when 572 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hadassah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hadassah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,480 people with the name Hadassah, or 1.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,704 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Hadassah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Hadassah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hadassah appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,485 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Hadassah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hadassah is White at 57.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.5%) and Black (14.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Hadassah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hadassah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.9% (3,171 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Hadassah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hadassah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hadassah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Hadassah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hadassah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Hadassah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Hadassah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Hadassah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.