--- title: Hillary Clinton Killed the Name 'Hillary' description: The popularity of the name Hillary fell dramatically beginning in 1993, the year that Clinton became First Lady. canonical: https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T17:12:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:48:42.972Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Killed the Name 'Hillary' og:description: The popularity of the name Hillary fell dramatically beginning in 1993, the year that Clinton became First Lady. og:url: https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9a3113bae8bacb5/69887c36e20a873a37a8f612/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes a question during a campaign rally in Derry, New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Killed the Name 'Hillary' twitter:description: The popularity of the name Hillary fell dramatically beginning in 1993, the year that Clinton became First Lady. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9a3113bae8bacb5/69887c36e20a873a37a8f612/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Don't Name Their Kids Hillary Anymore Because of Hillary Clinton  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 5, 2016 5:12 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton takes a question during a campaign rally at the Derry Boys and Girls Club in Derry, NH on Feb. 3, 2016. Hillary Clinton takes a question during a campaign rally at the Derry Boys and Girls Club in Derry, NH on Feb. 3, 2016.Adrees Latif—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 5, 2016 5:12 PM UTC Hillary Clinton is a former senator, First Lady, Secretary of State, and is now leading in national polls for the Democratic nomination for president. But no one names their kids Hillary anymore. [According to the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/05/the-clintons-ruined-the-name-hillary-for-new-parents/), the popularity of the name Hillary fell dramatically beginning in 1993, the year that Clinton became First Lady. It fell 90% between 1992 and 1999. The drop is made sharper by the fact that the name had actually been increasing in popularity up until 1992, and the _Post_ points out that this is not the case with the names of all former presidents and First Ladies. But there is still hope for little Hillarys out there: there was a small spike in popularity in 2008 when Clinton last ran for president. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/05/the-clintons-ruined-the-name-hillary-for-new-parents/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/"},"headline":"People Don't Name Their Kids Hillary Anymore Because of Hillary Clinton","datePublished":"2016-02-05T17:12:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:48:42.972Z","description":"According to federal name data","url":"https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9a3113bae8bacb5/69887c36e20a873a37a8f612/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd9a3113bae8bacb5/69887c36e20a873a37a8f612/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes a question during a campaign rally in Derry, New Hampshire","caption":"U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes a question during a campaign rally in Derry, New Hampshire","creditText":"Adrees Latif—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4209626/hillary-clinton-baby-name/","name":"People Don't Name Their Kids Hillary Anymore Because of Hillary Clinton"}}]}] ```