Humanverse

Hila vs Hilton

American parents have registered 6,990 Hiltons since 1880, against 812 Hilas. But in 2025 it was Hila that was commoner, 18 babies to 18.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Hila against Hilton, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Hila Hilton

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 141 years in which either name was published, Hilton for 135 years and Hila for 6 years. The lead changed hands 8 times.

Side by side

  Hila Hilton
Total US births 8126,990
Most in one year 26143
Babies in 2025 1818
Estimated living today 4603,100
Median age today 1656
Peak year 20221920
Best rank 5,028th girls521st boys
Rank in 2025 6,325th6,446th
First recorded 18841882
Girls / boys 812 / 065 / 6,925

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 Hiltons alive today are over 56; half the Hilas are over 16. That is 40 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 Hilton
England and Wales 5195
France 6555

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 Hilton.