Halla
Feminine Arabic name meaning "to untie" or "to release".
Name Census estimates that about 286 living Americans carry the first name Halla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Halla today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halla births was 1997 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halla. 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 Halla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
286
~ 1 in 1,198,442 Americans
Peak year
1997
21 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2012 SSA rank
#14,015
Tracked since 1987
Census
Halla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 449 people with the first name Halla, which placed it at #22,241 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
#22,241
National first-name rank
People counted
449
449 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halla is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Two or More Races (6.9%). 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 Halla 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 Halla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.7% · 331
- Black or African American11.8% · 53
- Two or more races6.9% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Halla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Halla from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 135 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Halla 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 Halla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Halla
The name Halla is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia during the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries). It is derived from the Old Norse word "hallr," meaning "rock" or "stone," suggesting a connection to nature and strength.
In ancient Norse mythology, Halla was the name of one of the handmaidens or servants of the goddess Frigg, the wife of Odin, the chief god in Norse mythology. This association with a prominent figure in Norse mythology suggests that the name may have held significant cultural and religious significance among the Norse peoples.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Halla can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical narratives and stories written in the 13th and 14th centuries. These sagas provide insights into the lives and customs of the Norse people during the Viking Age and the early settlement of Iceland.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Halla. One of the most famous was Halla Vilhjálmsdóttir (1923-2015), an Icelandic actress and singer who was a prominent figure in Icelandic theater and film during the 20th century. Another notable Halla was Halla Tómasdóttir (1976-present), an Icelandic businesswoman and entrepreneur who co-founded the successful clothing company Revna.
In the realm of literature, Halla Margrét Árnadóttir (1958-present) is an Icelandic author and translator known for her novels and short stories. In the field of sports, Halla Hinrichs (1967-present) is a former German professional tennis player who achieved a career-high ranking of No. 9 in the world in 1987.
Another notable individual with the name Halla was Halla Tómasdóttir (1965-present), an Icelandic politician and former Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources in Iceland from 2009 to 2013.
While the name Halla may have ancient roots in Norse culture and mythology, it has endured through the centuries and continues to be used in various parts of the world, particularly in Scandinavia and Iceland, where it remains a popular and culturally significant name.
People
Halla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halla 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
Halla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 286 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halla 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 1,198,442 US residents.
Is Halla a common name?
We classify Halla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 293 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halla most popular?
The single biggest year for Halla was 1997, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halla is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 449 people with the name Halla, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,241 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 Halla 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 Halla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halla leans strongly female. 439 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.8%). 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 Halla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halla is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.8%) and Two or More Races (6.9%). 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 Halla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.7% (331 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 Halla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Halla 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 Halla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halla 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 Halla 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 people have Halla as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.