Hildegard
Fewer than 130 people in Poland carry it, and not one child has been given it since 2000: most Poles will never meet a Hildegard. Germanic at root, it means "battle protector".
Hildegard Pronunciation
Hildegard is pronounced kheel-DE-gahrt (/xilˈdɛgart/).
What Hildegard means
Where Hildegard comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hildegard is built from two Germanic words. Hild meant battle, and gard meant an enclosure or a guard. Joined, they say plainly what the Polish calendars still record: obrończyni w walce, a defender in battle.
The most famous bearer needs no softening. Hildegard von Bingen, born in 1098, ran a German convent and wrote music, medicine, and letters to popes and emperors. She was canonised in 2012, more than eight centuries after her death in 1179. Long before her, Hildegard of the Vinzgau married Charlemagne and bore him nine children.
In a Polish class register the name looks unusual now, a long word among the Zuzannas and Amelias. Its meaning has not moved in a thousand years. Hild for battle, gard for the guard around it.
How many people are named Hildegard
1 in 187865 women in Poland is named Hildegard. 128 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2940 among female names.
Hildegard as a middle name
Hildegard is a first name for 128 women in Poland and a middle name for another 83, a 61/39 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 727th, between Florianna (83) and Joanne (83).
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#725 Eufrozyna83
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#726 Florianna83
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#727 Hildegard83
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#728 Joanne83
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#729 Kama83