Fun Facts About the Name Hyde
- 314 babies named Hyde: U.S. records list 314 babies given the name Hyde from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Hyde Mean?
Hyde is an English surname meaning "dweller at a hide of land," from the Old English word hīd, a unit of land. A hide was a measure used in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England to assess land for taxation and for obligations such as military service; it was nominally about 120 acres, but its actual size varied by region, and it stood roughly for the amount of land needed to support one household.
The surname grew out of this word as a topographic or habitational name: it identified someone who lived at or held a hide of land, or who came from one of the English places called Hyde or Hide. A competing and less secure explanation traces some instances to Old English hȳd, "hide, skin," which could have described a tanner or a dealer in hides. For the place names and for most bearers of the surname, the land measure is the accepted derivation, but the two words were close in form, and the derivation of an individual family's name is not always certain.
Hyde Name History & Origins
The word behind the surname is much older than the surname itself. Old English hīd appears in Anglo-Saxon laws and land records as a unit of assessment, and it survives in the names of English places such as Hyde in Cheshire, Hide in Bedfordshire, and the old manor of Hyde in London, from which Hyde Park takes its name. People who lived at or came from such places were identified by the name, and that byname became inherited.
Hereditary surnames of this kind settled in England during the later Middle Ages, from roughly the 13th and 14th centuries onward. Both Hide and Hyde appear in English records as spellings of the same name, with the -y- form becoming the more usual one over time. The surname is well attested among the English gentry: Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, was a 17th-century statesman and historian, and his daughter Anne Hyde married the future King James II.
The best-known literary appearance of the name is in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), where Edward Hyde is the other self of Henry Jekyll. The story gave the surname a durable association with a divided or hidden nature, but that is a literary use of a long-established surname rather than its source. Use of Hyde as a first name is far less common and much more recent than its use as a family name, drawing on the surname and sometimes on family custom.
How Popular is the Name Hyde?
Hyde has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2017. Its best rank was #3,618 in 2017.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #5,960 | 15 | 0.0009% |
| 2024 | #6,966 | 12 | 0.0007% |
| 2023 | #5,536 | 17 | 0.0010% |
| 2022 | #4,912 | 20 | 0.0011% |
| 2021 | #3,767 | 29 | 0.0017% |
| 2020 | #4,763 | 20 | 0.0012% |
| 2019 | #5,920 | 15 | 0.0008% |
| 2018 | #4,407 | 23 | 0.0013% |
| 2017 | #3,618 | 30 | 0.0016% |
| 2016 | #6,488 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 2015 | #7,694 | 10 | 0.0005% |
| 2014 | #5,833 | 15 | 0.0008% |
| 2013 | #6,387 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 2012 | #8,417 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2011 | #6,751 | 12 | 0.0006% |
| 2010 | #7,263 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 2009 | #8,559 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2008 | #10,284 | 7 | 0.0003% |
| 2007 | #9,209 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 2006 | #7,114 | 11 | 0.0005% |
| 2005 | #7,885 | 9 | 0.0005% |
| 2004 | #10,459 | 6 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
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How the Name Hyde Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You attract success and money. You are a lover of nature and do not need others for your happiness. You are self sufficient. You strive for material success and power and have business sense. You possess strong organizational abilities, can be a good manager, and executive by nature. You are capable of great achievement in business and finance. You are inventive, intuitive and extremely methodical. Since your will is so strong, you are hard to convince. You also dislike advice. You love beauty and philosophy, and you desire achievement. You have a strong need for freedom - physical, mental and spiritual.
You find the best contentment in life when you own your own home and provide well for your family and loved ones. You have a great sense of responsibility and duty. You are comforting, appreciative and affectionate. Your obligation in life is to hold justice and truth, and if you follow the Law, you can find the great happiness and satisfaction.
✦ Hyde's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Hyde's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.