Hildegarde
Feminine given name of German origin meaning "battle guard".
Name Census estimates that about 191 living Americans carry the first name Hildegarde. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hildegarde today is around 84 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hildegarde births was 1915 (124 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hildegarde. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Hildegarde is about 84 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hildegardes were born before 1952.
People living today
191
~ 1 in 1,794,525 Americans
Peak year
1915
124 babies that year
Average age
84
years old
1961 SSA rank
#3,671
Tracked since 1885
Census
Hildegarde in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 484 people with the first name Hildegarde, which placed it at #21,098 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
#21,098
National first-name rank
People counted
484
484 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hildegarde
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hildegarde is White at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Hildegarde 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 Hildegarde at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.0% · 387
- Black or African American10.5% · 51
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 18
- Two or more races1.0% · 5
Popularity
Hildegarde: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hildegarde from the 1880s through to the 1960s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 719 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hildegarde 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 Hildegarde during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hildegardes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Hildegarde, while Texas, North Dakota, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hildegarde
The name Hildegarde is of Germanic origin, derived from the elements "hild" meaning "battle" and "gard" meaning "enclosure" or "fortress." This name dates back to the Middle Ages, around the 5th to 10th centuries, when it was commonly used among the Frankish and Germanic peoples.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Hildegarde can be found in the 9th century, when a nun known as Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) became a prominent figure in the Benedictine monastic tradition. She was a renowned writer, composer, philosopher, and mystic, and is now venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Another notable figure with the name Hildegarde was Hildegarde of Vintzgau (1258-1292), who was a member of the Counts of Tyrol and is remembered for her piety and charitable works. In the 13th century, Hildegarde of Burgundy (1190-1243) was a prominent noblewoman who served as the regent of Franche-Comté.
In the 16th century, Hildegarde of Pfalz-Neuburg (1567-1638) was a German princess and abbess who played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation movement. She founded several monasteries and worked to promote Catholic education in her region.
More recently, Hildegarde Neff (1886-1974) was a Swiss writer and pacifist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for her efforts in promoting international cooperation and peace during the aftermath of World War I.
While the name Hildegarde was more prevalent in medieval and early modern times, it has maintained a presence throughout history, with various spellings and variations such as Hildegard, Hilda, and Hilde. The name's strong Germanic roots and association with notable historical figures have contributed to its enduring legacy and appeal across different cultures and time periods.
People
Hildegarde + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hildegarde 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
Hildegarde: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hildegarde?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 191 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hildegarde 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 1,794,525 US residents.
Is Hildegarde a common name?
We classify Hildegarde as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,326 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hildegarde most popular?
The single biggest year for Hildegarde was 1915, when 124 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hildegarde is about 84 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hildegarde in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 484 people with the name Hildegarde, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,098 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 Hildegarde 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 Hildegarde?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hildegarde appears almost entirely female. Of the 479 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Hildegarde?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hildegarde is White at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (4.8%). 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 Hildegarde most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hildegarde in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.0% (387 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 Hildegarde in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hildegarde a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hildegarde 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 Hildegarde still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hildegarde 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 Hildegarde 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 the name Hildegarde?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Hildegarde at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.