Humanverse

Hila vs Hilma

American parents have registered 2,999 Hilmas since 1880, against 812 Hilas. But in 2025 it was Hila that was commoner, 18 babies to fewer than five.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Hila against Hilma, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Hila Hilma

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 124 years in which either name was published, Hilma for 80 years and Hila for 44 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Hila Hilma
Total US births 8122,999
Most in one year 26105
Babies in 2025 18under 5
Estimated living today 460250
Median age today 1680
Peak year 20221915
Best rank 5,028th girls644th girls
Rank in 2025 6,325thunranked
First recorded 18841880
Girls / boys 812 / 02,999 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Hilmas alive today are over 80; half the Hilas are over 16. That is 64 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Hila Hilma
France 65185

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Hila and Hilma.