Hilal
Hilal means "crescent moon", a name that travels through Arabic and Turkish use. In Poland it barely registers: around 46 people carry it, split fairly evenly between women and men.
Hilal Pronunciation
Hilal is pronounced KHEE-lahl (/ˈxilal/).
What Hilal means
Where Hilal comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hilal is the Arabic word for the crescent moon, the thin new moon that opens each month in the lunar calendar. In Turkey and across the Arabic-speaking world it names both girls and boys, and it sits on flags and mosque domes as a familiar shape. The short meaning stays close to the sky: crescent moon, półksiężyc in Polish.
The written origin reaches back into Semitic soil. Arabic hilāl shares the root h-l-l with a Hebrew verb meaning to shine or to praise, the same root that stands behind the word Halleluyah. So a name for the new moon also touches an old idea of light and praise. That link is etymology, not folklore.
For the people who carry it, Hilal marks beginnings. The crescent announces the start of Ramadan and the close of the fast, so the name is tied to watching the sky. In a Polish class register the spelling would raise a small question at roll call. There is no Polish name-day for it, and no diminutive has grown around it. The name keeps its single shape: Hilal, the crescent moon.
How many people are named Hilal
1 in 663054 women in Poland is named Hilal. 46 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5617 among female names.
Hilal as a middle name
Hilal is a first name for 46 women in Poland and a middle name for another 8, an 85/15 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2766th, between Hailey (8) and Hinda (8).
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#2764 Hadar8
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#2765 Hailey8
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#2766 Hilal8
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#2767 Hinda8
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#2768 Hoài8