Hugo

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Hugh in FR France, CO Colombia, PA Panama.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Hugo is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name964K records spelled Hugo11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Belgium, Canada

  Also written Hùgo, Hügõ, Hūgō, Hügo, Hugõ

• English given name777K records spelled Hugo152 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Western Frisian

  Also written Hugh, Hugues, Hughes, ฮัว, Huey

• a separate given name64K records spelled Hugo3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, Bolivia, United Kingdom

  Also written Hugó, Hugõ

• Finnish given name46K records spelled Hugo6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Estonia, United States, Sweden

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Hügo, Hugõ, Hùgo, Hûgõ

• Lao given name7.0K records spelled Hugo19 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Peru

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written ฮูโก, ฮูโก้, ฮิวโก้, Huko, ฮิวโก

98 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Hugo is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from a Germanic short form of a name with *hug- 'mind, spirit'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In German, from the given name Hugo, from Germanic *hug- 'mind, thought'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In French, From Germanic hug, 'mind, spirit'; St Hugh.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• Latinized form of Hugh, used throughout the Middle Ages in official HULDA documents, and occasionally revived as a modern given name. Hulda ° Biblical name (meaning ‘weasel’ in Hebrew}, borne by a prophetess who foretold to Josiah the destruction of Jerusalem (2 Kings 22). Variant: Huldah.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• from a short form of any of the Germanic compound personal names with the first element hug ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’ (see Hugh).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Hugh the Greatb. 898FRnot in their usual nameDuke of the Franks and Count of Paris (c. 898–956)
• Hugues Capetb. 940FRnot in their usual nameKing of the Franks
• Grotiusb. 1583NLnot in their usual nameDutch jurist and scholar (1583-1645)
• Hugo de Vriesb. 1848NLDutch botanist (1848-1935)
• Alvar Aaltob. 1898FInot in their usual nameFinnish architect and designer (1898–1976)
• Hugo Clausb. 1929BEBelgian author (1929–2008)
• Hugo Chávezb. 1954VEVenezuelan politician, 56th president of Venezuela (1954–2013)
• Hugo Sánchezb. 1958MXMexican footballer and manager
• Hugo Llorisb. 1986FRFrench footballer (born 1986)
• Hugo Ekitikeb. 2002FRFrench footballer (born 2002)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,699 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Hugo?

We estimate roughly 530 thousand people bear Hugo (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.

In which country does Hugo have the most bearers?

Hugo is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled hugo.

How common is Hugo compared with other names?

In Argentina, Hugo is the 56th most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Hugo a male or female name?

Hugo is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Hugo mean?

Recorded meaning: Germanic hypocoristic from names in hugi/hugu ‘spirit, intellect, mind, thought’.