girl's name
Halle
HAL-ee
- Origin Norse
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 1
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 23,714
the United States
#595
2025 births
Halle is a girl's name with a Norse and Germanic background, usually given as rock or as a form of a name meaning army ruler. Its highest recorded year is 2002, the year Halle Berry won her Academy Award.
- Halle is a name of Norse origin.
- Peaked in 2002, when 971 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 6,752 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1948.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Halle over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 5 |
| 1950s | 19 |
| 1960s | 101 |
| 1970s | 150 |
| 1980s | 203 |
| 1990s | 2,789 |
| 2000s | 7,122 |
| 2010s | 3,702 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,566 |
What Halle means
Halle is given as rock, or as home ruler through the Germanic Harold family. The two readings come from different sources and neither has clear priority.
Where Halle comes from
Halle has more than one plausible route. The Old Norse hallr means a rock or boulder and appears in personal names such as Halli and Halldór; that gives the rock reading. Separately, Halle is used in Norwegian and Danish as a short form of names built on the Germanic hari, army, and wald, ruler, which gives the army ruler or home ruler gloss that most references carry. It is also a German city and an English surname from a hall or manor, either of which could supply a transferred use. The modern American name owes its visibility to the actress Halle Berry, named after a Cleveland department store.
Halle in use
Halle ranks 176th in Scotland on 23 births, 317th in England and Wales on 138, 357th in Northern Ireland, 365th in Ireland and 595th in the United States on 491. It peaked in the United States in 2002, when 971 babies were registered — the same year Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The name is stable in our data across 23,714 lifetime births going back to 1948.
How popular is Halle?
In 2025, Halle was given to 491 babies in the United States, ranking #595 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Halle is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Halle
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Halle also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Halle over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Halle
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Halle in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Icelandic
- Halley
Sibling names for Halle
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Halle — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Halle
What does the name Halle mean?
Rock, from the Old Norse hallr, or army ruler through a Germanic short form. Both are current.
How do you pronounce Halle?
HAL-ee, rhyming with valley.
Is Halle the same as Hallie?
They are usually treated as spellings of one name, and both are in use.
How popular is Halle?
176th in Scotland and 595th in the United States. Its highest recorded year was 2002.
Is Halle a girl's or a boy's name?
Halle is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Halle?
Halle has 1 syllable.
What are the nicknames for Halle?
Halle is usually shortened to Hal.
Is Halle a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Halle currently ranks #176 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.