girl's name
Heidi
HY-dee
- Origin Germanic
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 172,938
the United States
#341
2025 births
Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one." It is a Swiss-German pet form of Adelheid, the name English renders as Adelaide, and its worldwide use comes almost entirely from one novel.
- Heidi is a name of Germanic origin.
- Peaked in 1972, when 4,741 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 3,708 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1929.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Heidi over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1920s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 8 |
| 1930s | 183 |
| 1940s | 1,270 |
| 1950s | 10,218 |
| 1960s | 33,828 |
| 1970s | 42,385 |
| 1980s | 26,500 |
| 1990s | 10,803 |
| 2000s | 10,102 |
| 2010s | 9,259 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,131 |
What Heidi means
Heidi means noble, or of noble kind, inherited from Adelheid. The elements are adal, noble, and heid, kind or sort — so the name describes the character of nobility rather than the rank.
Where Heidi comes from
Heidi shortens the Germanic Adelheid, from adal, noble, and heid, kind or type — the same name that gives Adelaide in English and Alice by a longer route through the French Adelais. It was a Swiss-German familiar form of no particular note until Johanna Spyri published Heidi in 1881. The novel, about an orphan raised by her grandfather in the Alps, became one of the best-selling books ever written and carried the name worldwide; almost no one now using it is aware of Adelheid.
Heidi in use
Our data shows Heidi stable, peaking in 1972, at 130 in England and Wales. It first appears in our records in 1929, half a century after the novel — a long lag that reflects how slowly a foreign-language book moved into English-speaking naming before film adaptations, of which there were several from the 1930s onward.
How popular is Heidi?
In 2025, Heidi was given to 894 babies in the United States, ranking #341 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Heidi 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.
How Heidi is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Heïdi | Heïdi is a rare spelling of Heidi, written with a diaeresis and recorded about 250 times, mostly in France. | 250 |
Names that peaked alongside Heidi
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Heidi also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Heidi over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Heidi
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.
Heidi 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.
Sibling names for Heidi
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Heidi — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Heidi
What does the name Heidi mean?
Heidi means "noble one," from the Germanic adal, noble, by way of Adelheid.
Is Heidi short for Adelaide?
Both descend from the Germanic Adelheid. Heidi is the Swiss-German pet form, Adelaide the English one.
Did the book make Heidi popular?
Almost entirely. Johanna Spyri's 1881 novel carried the name worldwide; our records show it in US data from 1929.
Is Heidi a girl's or a boy's name?
Heidi is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Heidi?
Heidi has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Heidi?
Heidi is usually shortened to Hei.
Is Heidi a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Heidi currently ranks #66 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.