Baby names starting with H: girls and boys

The most used girls' names beginning with H in 2025

H is a strong middle-ranking letter for girls: 11,918 babies across 337 spellings, or about one girl in twenty-one. Its top is unusually modern. Harper and Hallie, first and second in the letter, were both rare in England and Wales a decade ago, while the names that used to define H for girls, Hannah and Holly, now sit at 439 and 285 babies respectively.

The most used boys' names beginning with H in 2025

The boys' letter is larger still at 13,756 babies across 290 names, and six of them sit inside the top 100. Its top is the opposite of the girls': Henry and Harry are two of the oldest continuously used names in England, and Harrison and Harvey are surname forms of the same root. Hudson and Hunter, both imported surnames, are the only recent arrivals near the top.

Which H names are rising and which are falling

Climbing

Harriet gained 9 places to 59th, the largest published one-year climb for the letter, and Hazel gained 4. Hallie rose 3 and is up 178 places since 2015, the biggest ten-year move any H name has made. Among boys Harrison gained 2, Henry and Harry 1 each, and Hugo held level. Hudson is up 132 places over ten years and Hazel 148.

Slipping

Hunter is the letter's clearest faller, down 13 places in 2025, although it remains 42 places higher than in 2015. Harper slipped 1 place and Hudson 1. Harriet, despite its strong year, is still 4 places lower than it was in 2015, and Harry is down 16 over the same period. Nothing in the H lists fell steeply, which sets it apart from B, C and E.

What the published change columns cannot tell you

Hannah, Heidi, Hana, Hattie, Holly, Hope, Hamza, Harvey, Harley and Hassan are all below rank 100 and carry no published change figure. Hamza at 385 is the highest-placed name in that group and one worth watching, but the ONS gives no basis for saying which way it moved, and this page does not supply one.

How big a letter H really is

H is eighth for girls and eighth for boys by babies named, one of the few letters that sits in the same position on both lists. It is also reasonably even: Harper takes 11 per cent of the girls' letter and Henry 17 per cent of the boys', so the letter has a genuine middle rather than one dominant name and a long tail.

Two naming traditions meet in the H list without overlapping. The English group runs from Henry and Harriet down through Hattie, Holly and Hope. Alongside it sits a substantial Arabic group including Hamza at 385, Hafsa at 250, Hawa at 165, Hiba at 162 and Hassan at 191. Both groups are large enough to shape the letter, and neither appears in the other's part of the list.

Further H names in the published 2025 list

The ONS full list does not stop at the tables above, and the counts stay exact all the way down. For girls the next names in order of use are Hawa at 165, Hiba at 162, Haniya at 161, Halle at 138, Harlow at 133, Helena at 131, Halima at 129, Hoorain at 128, Hanna at 122, Hailey at 115, Hania at 106, Huda at 105. For boys they are Haider at 149, Hayden at 141, Hussain at 127, Haris at 125, Hughie at 124, Harris at 103, Harri at 100, Harlow at 96, Huzaifa at 95, Hadi at 89, Hasan at 86, Hendrix at 85. Each figure is the exact number of babies registered with that exact spelling during 2025, taken from the ONS full-list table rather than from the top 100. The letter carries 337 different girls' names and 290 different boys' names in the published data altogether, and any name given to two or fewer babies has been removed from it.

Choosing a H name: what the data changes

H is a good letter for parents who want a name that sounds established without being in the top ten. Harriet, Hazel, Hattie and Hugo all sit between 500 and 1,100 babies, comfortably below the leaders. Be aware that the aspirate is dropped in much of England, so Harriet, Arriet and Hattie can sound closer together in speech than they look on paper.