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Hillard vs Hilton

American parents have registered 6,990 Hiltons since 1880, against 2,356 Hillards. Hilton is still ahead, with 18 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Hillard 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 143 years in which either name was published, Hilton for 134 years and Hillard for 9 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.

Side by side

  Hillard Hilton
Total US births 2,3566,990
Most in one year 82143
Babies in 2025 under 518
Estimated living today 5603,100
Median age today 7056
Peak year 19261920
Best rank 699th boys521st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked6,446th
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 0 / 2,35665 / 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 Hillards alive today are over 70; half the Hiltons are over 56. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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