Halle
Meaning
from Old Norse Halli (from hallr, 'rock'), or, as with actress Halle Berry, from a store name from the German surname Halle
The story
Halle reaches English by two separate roads, and Behind the Name keeps them apart. One is old: the Old Norse name Halli, a diminutive of names containing hallr, "rock, slab, slope". The other is precisely American: the actress Halle Berry was named for a department store in Cleveland, where she was born, a store founded by brothers with the German surname Halle, a cognate of Hall. The published record grew from single digits in the 1940s to about 200 girls a decade by the 1980s, then moved: about 2,800 girls in the 1990s, about 7,100 in the 2000s, about 3,700 in the 2010s, and about 2,570 so far this decade. A Norse rock on one road, a Cleveland storefront on the other, and one two-syllable name at the meeting point.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Halle peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
26 people · the #104,241 first name in Brazil · median age 30
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Halle
Most people given the name Halle in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Halle deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Halle truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Halle fits with your family’s names and surname.
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