Hope
75,724 people in America carry this name — ranked #688 of 923.
Carried mostly by Generation Z.
Say it HOHP
1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part
Phonetic transcription
HH OW1 P — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.
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People counted 75,724 2020 Census
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Rank #688 Familiar
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Per 100,000 25.1 about 1 in 4,377 people
The meaning and origin of Hope
Reads literally as “at the hope”.
Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.
How often Hope has been given
92,232 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2000, with 2,326 of them.
Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s. It has been given less often of late.
Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.
Middle names for Hope
One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.
Better avoided
- Hope Elizabeth — runs together
- Hope Patricia — runs together
- Hope Emily — runs together
Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.
Is Hope used for boys or for girls?
As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.
Who carries it today
- White alone (non-Hispanic) — 70.6%
- Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 11.8%
- Hispanic or Latino origin — 9.3%
- Two or more races — 4.7%
- Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 2.7%
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.9%
Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.
Names about as common
The nearest entries above and below by number of people.
Where the name Hope is most common in the US
In South Dakota the name is given 1.7 times as often as it is across the country.
- South Dakota ×1.7
- Maine ×1.6
- South Carolina ×1.5
- Hawaii ×1.5
- Louisiana ×1.4
Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.
Try it Full-Name Estimator
Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.
Where this page gets its numbers
- Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
- Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
- Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.
Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers