Hal

Where Hal comes from

Hal hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #745 among boys — 7 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1925
    Hal Holbrook born
    American actor
  3. 1956
    Peak, #305
    598 babies named Hal — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1962
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #528.
  5. 1989
    Hal Robson-Kanu born
    Welsh association football player
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Hal Holbrook · American actor, 1925–2021
  • Hal Robson-Kanu · Welsh association football player, born 1989
  • Hal B. Wallis · American film producer and art collector, 1898–1986
  • Hal Ashby · American film director and film editor, 1929–1988
  • Hal Roach · American filmmaker, 1892–1992

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.