Hondo
A Spanish name meaning "deep" or "profound".
Name Census estimates that about 88 living Americans carry the first name Hondo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hondo today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hondo births was 2022 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hondo. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hondo. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
88
~ 1 in 3,894,936 Americans
Peak year
2022
8 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,954
Tracked since 1967
Census
Hondo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 178 people with the first name Hondo, which placed it at #41,266 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
#41,266
National first-name rank
People counted
178
178 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hondo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hondo is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.2%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Hondo 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 Hondo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.1% · 82
- Hispanic or Latino29.2% · 52
- Black or African American9.6% · 17
- Two or more races6.7% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native5.1% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 6
Popularity
Hondo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hondo from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 30 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Hondo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hondo 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 Hondo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hondo
The given name Hondo has its origins in the Spanish language. It is derived from the Spanish adjective "hondo," which means deep or profound. The name likely first emerged in Spain during the medieval period, around the 11th or 12th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hondo can be found in the 13th-century epic poem "El Cantar de Mio Cid," which chronicles the life and exploits of the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid. In this work, the name Hondo is mentioned as a character, although it is unclear whether it was used as a first name or a descriptive term.
Throughout the centuries, the name Hondo has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Hondo Navarro (c. 1490-1556), a Spanish conquistador who participated in the conquest of Mexico and served as a lieutenant under Hernán Cortés. Another prominent figure was Hondo Gómez de Torres (1516-1579), a Spanish explorer who led expeditions to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
In the 17th century, Hondo de Mendoza (1620-1683) was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Guatemala from 1672 to 1677. During the same period, Hondo Álvarez de Toledo (1639-1701) was a Spanish nobleman and diplomat who held various positions at the court of King Charles II.
Moving into the 19th century, Hondo Martínez (1810-1887) was a Mexican general and politician who played a significant role in the Reform War and the French Intervention in Mexico. He served as the governor of the state of Guerrero from 1867 to 1871.
While the name Hondo has Spanish roots, it has been adopted and used in various other cultures and languages over time, reflecting the global reach and influence of the Spanish language and culture.
People
Hondo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hondo 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
Hondo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hondo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 88 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hondo 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 3,894,936 US residents.
Is Hondo a common name?
We classify Hondo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 92 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hondo most popular?
The single biggest year for Hondo was 2022, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hondo is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hondo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 178 people with the name Hondo, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,266 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 Hondo 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 Hondo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hondo leans strongly male. 170 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 4 female 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 Hondo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hondo is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (29.2%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Hondo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hondo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.1% (82 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 Hondo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hondo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hondo in the SSA data are male. 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 Hondo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hondo 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 Hondo 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 named Hondo?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.