Hugh

Where Hugh comes from

From the Old French aristocratic and saint's name Hughe, brought to England by Normans, from a short form of Germanic names beginning with Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“heart, mind”), such as Hubert. Cognate with Old English hyġe (“mind, spirit, intellect”). More at high, how.
— Wiktionary's entry for Hugh
  • Germanic
  • 1 syllable
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #71 among boys — 224 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1887
    Peak, #69
    250 babies named Hugh — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1959
    Hugh Laurie born
    English actor, comedian, director, musician and writer
  4. 1960
    Hugh Grant born
    British actor
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Hugh Grant · British actor, born 1960
  • Hugh Laurie · English actor, comedian, director, musician and writer, born 1959
  • Hugh Hefner · American businessman and magazine publisher, 1926–2017
  • Hugh David Politzer · American physicist, born 1949
  • Hugh Masekela · South African jazz trumpeter, 1939–2018

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.