Huw
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Welsh form of }Hugh, now sometimes also used in other parts of the Englishspeaking world
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈhu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Huw is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United Kingdom than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 15K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 44K
- USUnited States1 in 2.5M
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United Kingdom (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 216 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 15K (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,300 people, est.
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Welsh form of }Hugh, now sometimes also used in other parts of the Englishspeaking world.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Huw counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB United Kingdom | #871 | ≈4,300 est. | ≈1 in 15K | 3 | Huw | 216 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈570 est. | ≈1 in 44K | 4 | Huw | 135 |
| US United States | — | 133 | 1 in 2.5M | 132 | Huw | 194 |
| DE Germany | — | ≈78 est. | ≈1 in 1M | — | Huw | 28 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈75 est. | ≈1 in 505K | 1 | Huw | 61 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | ≈44 est. | ≈1 in 113K | — | Huw | 31 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈42 est. | ≈1 in 201K | — | Huw | 10 |
| IE Ireland | — | ≈20 est. | ≈1 in 261K | — | Huw | 21 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Huw is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A male given name from Welsh, equivalent to English Hugh.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In pdt, a black lace cap worn by Mennonite matrons.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
ISO 639-3 language code for Hukumina.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In uri, water
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Huw Wheldonb. 1916GBBritish broadcaster (1916-1986)
- Huw Priceb. 1953AUAustralian philosopher
- Huw Edwardsb. 1961GBWelsh journalist and newsreader (born 1961)
- Huw Jenkinsb. 1963GBWelsh football chairman
- Huw Higginsonb. 1964GBBritish actor
- Huw Merrimanb. 1973GBBritish politician (born 1973)
- Huw Bennettb. 1983GBWelsh rugby union footballer and coach
- H. Hawklineb. 1985GBnot in their usual nameWelsh singer-songwriter and radio and television presenter based in Cardiff
- Jonny Sweetb. 1985GBnot in their usual nameBritish comedian
- Huw Nightingaleb. 2001GBBritish snowboarder
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 22 sources across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 132 | #48,183 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2000 | 5 | #339 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1994 | 4 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1994 | 4 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2023 | 3 | #728 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1990 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1990 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1988 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1988 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1983 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1983 | 3 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1982 | 3 | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Huw mean, and where does it come from?
- Welsh form of }Hugh, now sometimes also used in other parts of the Englishspeaking world. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What are other forms of the name Huw?
- In the etymology graph, Hugo, Hugh and Hugues are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Huw?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈhu/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Huw?
- In the United States, the national register counted 133 people named Huw in 2020, about 1 in 2.5 million residents.
- How common is Huw compared with other names?
- In the United Kingdom, Huw is the 871st most common given name of 404,737 given names recorded there.
- Is Huw a male or female name?
- Huw is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Huw have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.3 thousand people named Huw in the United Kingdom, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled huw.
What do you want to know about Huw?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/huwThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Huw” — the 871st most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.