Hillary
A feminine given name of French origin meaning "cheerful" or "friendly".
Name Census estimates that about 27,768 living Americans carry the first name Hillary. It is a predominantly female name (95.8% of registrations). The average person named Hillary today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hillary births was 1992 (2,528 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hillary. 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 Hillary with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Hillary started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Although Hillary is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,262 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
28K
~ 1 in 12,344 Americans
Peak year
1992
2,528 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2008 SSA rank
#2,326
Tracked since 1888
Census
Hillary in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 27,769 people with the first name Hillary, which placed it at #1,314 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
#1,314
National first-name rank
People counted
28K
27,769 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hillary
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hillary is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.7%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Hillary 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 Hillary at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.1% · 20,855
- Hispanic or Latino11.7% · 3,238
- Black or African American6.4% · 1,776
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 967
- Two or more races2.7% · 739
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 194
Gender
Gender distribution for Hillary
Hillary leans heavily female at 95.8% of total registrations, but 1,262 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Hillary as a male name
- Ranked #11,575 in 2008
- 6 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1954 (27 births)
Hillary as a female name
- Ranked #2,326 in 2024
- 79 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (2,521 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hillary leans strongly female. 27,130 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 643 male bearers (2.3%).
Popularity
Hillary: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hillary from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 9,709 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hillary 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 Hillary during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hillarys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Hillary, while Hawaii, North Dakota, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 511 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hillary
The name Hillary has its origins in the Latin language and traces back to the late medieval period. It is derived from the Germanic name Hilarius, which in turn comes from the Latin word "hilaris," meaning "cheerful" or "joyful." The name was initially used as a surname in ancient Rome.
During the Middle Ages, the name Hilarius was adopted as a masculine given name in Christian contexts, often associated with saints and religious figures. One notable bearer was Saint Hilary of Poitiers, a 4th-century bishop and Doctor of the Church, whose writings and theological works were influential in the early development of Christian doctrine.
The feminine form of the name, Hillary, emerged as a variant in the 12th century. It was first recorded in England in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appeared as a surname. Over time, the name transitioned from a surname to a given name, particularly in English-speaking countries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of Hillary as a feminine given name dates back to the 13th century, when a woman named Hillary de Morvill was mentioned in historical records from Yorkshire, England. However, the name remained relatively rare until the 20th century, when it gained popularity as a feminine form of the traditional masculine name Hilary.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Hillary. One of the most famous was Hillary of Rheims, a medieval abbess and hagiographer who lived in the 12th century and wrote a biography of Saint Remigius, the Apostle of the Franks.
Another noteworthy bearer was Hillary Lindo, a British-Jamaican planter and slave owner who lived from 1770 to 1836 and played a significant role in the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
In the 20th century, one of the most prominent figures with the name Hillary was Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former First Lady of the United States, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State, born in 1947.
Other notable individuals include Hillary Bauer (1935-2015), an American actress known for her roles in soap operas, and Hillary Brooke (1914-1999), an American actress and singer who appeared in numerous films during the 1940s and 1950s.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Hillary
People
Hillary + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hillary 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
Hillary: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hillary?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27,768 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hillary 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 12,344 US residents.
Is Hillary a common name?
We classify Hillary as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 30,239 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hillary most popular?
The single biggest year for Hillary was 1992, when 2,528 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hillary is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hillary in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 27,769 people with the name Hillary, or 9.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,314 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 Hillary 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 Hillary?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hillary leans strongly female. 27,130 people counted with this name were female (97.7%), compared with 643 male bearers (2.3%). 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 Hillary?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hillary is White at 75.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.7%) and Black (6.4%). 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 Hillary most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hillary in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.1% (20,855 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 Hillary in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hillary a female name?
Yes, 95.8% of people registered as Hillary 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 Hillary still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hillary 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 Hillary 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 Hillary?
Want to know how many people have the name Hillary? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.