| Gertrude | Hilda | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Spear of strength | Battle |
| Origin | germanic | germanic |
| Gender | Girl | Girl |
| Pronunciation | GUR-trood | HIL-duh |
| Syllables | 2 | 2 |
| First appeared | 0 | 0 |
| Peak year | 1917 (6,300) | 1921 (2,128) |
| In 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Trend | Vintage | Vintage |
Source: US Social Security Administration.
| Decade | Gertrude | Hilda |
|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 171 | 316 |
| 2010s | 236 | 448 |
| 2000s | 135 | 827 |
| 1990s | 102 | 1,362 |
| 1980s | 188 | 1,907 |
| 1970s | 380 | 2,582 |
| 1960s | 1,250 | 3,596 |
| 1950s | 3,936 | 6,303 |
| 1940s | 7,936 | 7,567 |
| 1930s | 16,137 | 9,454 |
| 1920s | 42,459 | 18,191 |
| 1910s | 49,565 | 15,674 |
| 1900s | 23,607 | 6,783 |
| 1890s | 19,898 | 4,732 |
| 1880s | 11,100 | 1,280 |
From Germanic 'ger' (spear) and 'thrud' (strength), so 'strong spear'. The 'spear' element is a weapon of war rather than 'warrior' outright, but the martial sense is well established.
Built on the Germanic element 'hild' meaning 'battle'. It began as a short form of longer names such as Hildegard and Brunhild before becoming an independent name.
Gertrude and Hilda are given to a similar number of US babies today.
Gertrude means Spear of strength (germanic origin), while Hilda means Battle (germanic origin).
In US records, Gertrude first appears in 0 and Hilda in 0, so Gertrude has the longer recorded history.