Heidi
A feminine name of German origin meaning "nobility, of noble birth".
Name Census estimates that about 132,979 living Americans carry the first name Heidi. It sits at #345 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Heidi today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heidi births was 1972 (4,741 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heidi. 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 Heidi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Heidi is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 361 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
133K
~ 1 in 2,578 Americans
Peak year
1972
4,741 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
1993 SSA rank
#345
Tracked since 1929
Census
Heidi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 137,524 people with the first name Heidi, which placed it at #411 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
#411
National first-name rank
People counted
138K
137,524 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
45.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heidi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heidi is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Heidi 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 Heidi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.3% · 117,313
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 11,846
- Two or more races2.5% · 3,429
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 3,113
- Black or African American0.9% · 1,266
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 557
Gender
Gender distribution for Heidi
Out of the 148,787 babies given the name Heidi since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Heidi as a male name
- Ranked #9,255 in 1993
- 5 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1979 (22 births)
Heidi as a female name
- Ranked #345 in 2024
- 901 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (4,723 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heidi appears almost entirely female. Of the 137,519 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Heidi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heidi from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 42,387 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heidi 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 Heidi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Heidis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Heidi, while Delaware, District of Columbia, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,873 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Heidi
The name Heidi originated from the German language, derived from the medieval Germanic name Heidrun. Heidrun is a compound word, consisting of the elements "haid" meaning "bright" or "shining," and "run" meaning "secret" or "mystery." The name first appeared in the 8th century AD, popularized in the regions of present-day Germany and Switzerland.
The earliest known reference to the name Heidi can be found in the Old Norse poem "Völuspá," which dates back to the 9th or 10th century AD. In this poem, Heidrun is described as a mythical goat that produces a never-ending supply of mead, the sacred drink of the gods.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Heidi was Heidi of Masmünster, a German abbess who lived in the 12th century. She was known for her piety and devotion to the Church.
The name gained wider recognition in the 19th century with the publication of the classic children's novel "Heidi" by Swiss author Johanna Spyri in 1880. The novel's titular character, Heidi, a young orphan girl, became an iconic figure in children's literature.
Notable people named Heidi throughout history include Heidi Zeller-Bähler (1915-1992), a Swiss politician and the first female member of the Swiss Federal Council; Heidi Klum (born 1973), a German-American model and television personality; Heidi Ueberroth (born 1960), an American Olympic swimmer and gold medalist; Heidi Fleiss (born 1965), an American former madam and convicted felon; and Heidi Tworek (born 1985), a German-American historian and author.
The name Heidi has maintained its popularity, particularly in German-speaking countries and regions with Germanic cultural influences, due to its association with the beloved literary character and its charming, pastoral connotations.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Heidi
People
Heidi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heidi 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
Heidi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heidi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 132,979 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heidi 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 2,578 US residents.
Is Heidi a common name?
We classify Heidi as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 148,787 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heidi most popular?
The single biggest year for Heidi was 1972, when 4,741 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heidi is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heidi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 137,524 people with the name Heidi, or 45.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #411 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 Heidi 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 Heidi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heidi appears almost entirely female. Of the 137,519 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Heidi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heidi is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Heidi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heidi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.3% (117,313 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 Heidi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heidi a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Heidi 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 Heidi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heidi 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 Heidi 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 are called Heidi?
You can see how many people have the name Heidi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.