Hildy
A feminine diminutive of the German name Hildegard, meaning "battle guard".
Name Census estimates that about 149 living Americans carry the first name Hildy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hildy today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hildy births was 1957 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hildy. 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.
People living today
149
~ 1 in 2,300,365 Americans
Peak year
1957
36 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2018 SSA rank
#16,580
Tracked since 1949
Census
Hildy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 302 people with the first name Hildy, which placed it at #29,353 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
#29,353
National first-name rank
People counted
302
302 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hildy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hildy is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Hildy 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 Hildy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.7% · 265
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 24
- Black or African American1.3% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 3
- Two or more races0.7% · 2
Popularity
Hildy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hildy from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 145 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hildy 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 Hildy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hildys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Hildy
The name Hildy is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Hildegard, which is derived from the Old High German words "hild" meaning battle and "gard" meaning guard or enclosure. This name was popular during the Middle Ages and has its roots in the cultural traditions of ancient Germanic tribes.
The earliest recorded use of the name Hildegard dates back to the 8th century, when it was mentioned in the Codex Bavarian, a legal code of the Bavarian people. The name gained popularity during the High Middle Ages, particularly in the regions of Germany and the Low Countries.
One of the most notable figures in history with the name Hildegard was the Benedictine abbess and polymath Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). She was a renowned writer, composer, philosopher, and visionary, and is considered one of the most influential figures of the Middle Ages.
Another historical figure with the name Hildegard was the German princess and countess Hildegard of Burgundy (1079-1141), who was the wife of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and played a significant role in the political affairs of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the realm of literature, the name Hildy is associated with the character Hildy Johnson, a female journalist in the play and film "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, which was first produced in 1928.
During the 20th century, the name Hildy gained some popularity, particularly in the United States. One notable figure was Hildy Parks (1904-1999), an American actress and singer who appeared in several Broadway productions and films during the 1930s and 1940s.
Another individual with the name Hildy was Hildy Peel (1916-2005), an American author and journalist who wrote several books on gardening and nature, including "Gardening with Hildy" and "Hildy's Plant Portraits."
While the name Hildy may not be as widely used today as it once was, it carries a rich historical legacy and serves as a reminder of the cultural traditions and influences that have shaped our understanding of names and their meanings.
People
Hildy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hildy 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
Hildy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hildy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hildy 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 2,300,365 US residents.
Is Hildy a common name?
We classify Hildy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 201 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hildy most popular?
The single biggest year for Hildy was 1957, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hildy is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hildy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 302 people with the name Hildy, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,353 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 Hildy 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 Hildy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hildy appears almost entirely female. Of the 304 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Hildy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hildy is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (1.3%). 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 Hildy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hildy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.7% (265 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 Hildy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hildy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hildy 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 Hildy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hildy 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 Hildy 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 Hildy?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.