Hugh is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The name Hugh isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Hugh ranks 763. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 2 were named Hugh. In the entire USA, approximately 70,865 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Hugh. That is 0.02 % of all living Americans.
The name Hugh has existed for over 1000 years: it is the English variant of the Germanic name Hugo, that was popular in the French aristocracy in the Middle Ages and brought to England by the Normans. The meaning of Hugh and Hugo is ‘mind, thought, spirit’ from the Old German word ‘hugu’.
The English name Huey was... originally a nickname for Hugh. Another diminutive is Hughie.
Hugh is the epitome of endurance. Every year since first names have been registered in the United States, parents have come up with the idea of naming their son Hugh. This means that several boys named Hugh have witnessed historic events such as the first Nobel Prize ceremony, the moon landing, the release of the first cell phone, or the turn of the millennium. The first name Hugh has reached its highest rank of 67 numerous times, but that was long ago before the beginning of the last century, last time in 1887. Nevertheless, the name has been in the top 100 repeatedly. This makes Hugh one of the most popular names of all time.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Hugh was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
Hugh will be Hugh. Like every other year, there have been newborns named Hugh in 2022 – in fact 305 to be precise, confirming Hugh is still a popular first name. In this most recent year for which US-wide statistics are available, the name ranked #757 among all boys‘ names. For comparison, the least popular year for this first name was 2006, when only 184 baby boys were named Hugh.
The name Hugh may not be in the top rankings of the most popular boys’ names, but it is one of the few male given names, along with only 385 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Hugh is apparently especially popular in Georgia. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular men’s names here either, one in 847 men in Georgia is called Hugh. In total, that’s 5,248 people who feel addressed when the name Hugh is shouted loudly across Georgia and who ensure that their name makes it to #182 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names in this nice state. If you asked all people in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Hugh as the answer a total of 70,865 times. This places Hugh at #357 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular male names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living people across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Hugh as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter H is not particularly common as a first letter for boys' names: only 2.9% of all common boys' names in the US begin with an H. The most common first letters for boys' names are J and A, while X and U are the least common first letters of boys' names.
With four letters, the name Hugh is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
This means that if 2.9% of all boys' names begin with an H, this initial letter is less common than the other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are of course some names that begin with H and are extremely popular, for example Henry, currently the most common boys’ name with H.
If your name is Hugh and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Hugh, you can simply say:
Hat
Unicorn
Goat
Hat
The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Hugh
Hugh
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
H
U
G
H
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
H
U
G
H
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Hugh sounds like this:
