Girl · Germanic, through Scandinavian
Hedda
Say it: HED-ah
Meaning
A Scandinavian pet form of Hedvig, from Germanic hadu 'battle' and wīg 'fight'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Made famous by Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and fashionable again in Norway and Sweden recently.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 221 babies given this name since 1900
- At its height in 1900, about 1 in 60,000 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Famous bearers
- Hedda Gabler, title heroine of Ibsen's 1890 play
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.