Halle
A feminine name of German origin meaning "from the salt meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 15,876 living Americans carry the first name Halle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Halle today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halle births was 2002 (971 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halle. 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 Halle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
16K
~ 1 in 21,589 Americans
Peak year
2002
971 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2004 SSA rank
#575
Tracked since 1948
Census
Halle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,598 people with the first name Halle, which placed it at #2,017 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
#2,017
National first-name rank
People counted
14K
13,598 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halle is White at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Halle 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 Halle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.1% · 10,622
- Two or more races7.3% · 992
- Black or African American6.3% · 860
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 749
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 246
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 129
Gender
Gender distribution for Halle
Out of the 16,159 babies given the name Halle since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Halle as a male name
- Ranked #10,432 in 2004
- 6 male births in 2004
- Peak: 2004 (6 births)
Halle as a female name
- Ranked #575 in 2024
- 524 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (971 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halle appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,596 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Halle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Halle from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 7,122 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Halle 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 Halle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Halles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, California recorded the most babies named Halle, while New Hampshire, District of Columbia, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 313 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Halle
The name Halle originates from the German language and has its roots in the Old High German word "halla," which means "hall" or "manor house." This name is believed to have first emerged during the medieval period in German-speaking regions of Europe, particularly in areas that are now part of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Halle can be found in the Nibelungenlied, a famous German epic poem from around the 13th century. In this work, the name appears as "Halle," referring to a location or settlement. Additionally, the name is mentioned in various historical documents and records from the Middle Ages, indicating its usage as a personal name during that time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Halle. One prominent figure was Halle Tanner (1905-1993), an American physician and medical educator who was the first African American woman to be admitted to the American College of Surgeons. Another notable bearer of the name was Halle Berry (born 1966), an American actress who won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her role in the film "Monster's Ball."
In the realm of music, Halle Cipora (born 1984) is a Swedish singer and songwriter known for her work in the pop and rock genres. Halle Soifer (born 1937) is an American artist and sculptor who has gained recognition for her large-scale public artworks.
Halle Maria Berry Blossius (1891-1968) was a Swedish politician and women's rights advocate who played a significant role in the suffrage movement in Sweden and served as a member of the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) from 1949 to 1956.
It is worth noting that while the name Halle has its origins in the German language, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, often with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation. However, the history and meaning of the name remain rooted in its German heritage and its connection to the concept of a "hall" or "manor house."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Halle
People
Halle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halle 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
Halle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,876 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halle 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 21,589 US residents.
Is Halle a common name?
We classify Halle as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,159 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halle most popular?
The single biggest year for Halle was 2002, when 971 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halle is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,598 people with the name Halle, or 4.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,017 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 Halle 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 Halle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halle appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,596 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Halle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halle is White at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Black (6.3%). 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 Halle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.1% (10,622 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 Halle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Halle 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 Halle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halle 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 Halle 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 Halle?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.